Civilian casualties in South Sudan’s Equatoria region drop 23 pct in third quarter: UN

UNITED NATIONS— Civilian casualties in South Sudan’s Equatoria region dipped 23 percent in this year’s third quarter from the same period in 2021, a UN spokesman said.

Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the UN mission generally attributed the decrease to a 60 percent drop in violence targeting civilians in the Greater Equatoria Region during the period.

The mission, known as UNMISS, reported that in July, August and September, at least 745 civilians were killed, injured, abducted and suffered conflict-related sexual violence compared to 922 civilian victims in the previous quarter this year and 969 in the same period of last year.

The report said the Upper Nile and Warrap States were most affected by the violence, accounting for more than half of the victims recorded during the reporting time frame. Conventional parties to the conflict were blamed for most of the civilian casualties in the reporting period.

Across South Sudan, UN peacekeepers safeguard communities by creating zones of protection in identified conflict hotspots, Haq said. It supports peace efforts with responsive and preventive political and community consultations at the local, state and national levels.

He said Nicholas Haysom, the secretary-general’s special representative in South Sudan, reported that UNMISS is encouraged by the decrease in violence affecting civilians this quarter. Haysom hopes to see a continued downward trend.

The Greater Equatoria Region is in the upper White Nile area.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK