The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has suspended its operations in South Sudan’s oil-rich Unity State following the brutal killing of one of its medics.
Louis Edward Saleh Ufew, a South Sudanese doctor, was killed at a health facility in Ganyliel village, Panyijiar County, last Friday.
He was the second aid worker to be killed in South Sudan this year.
Caroline Sekyewa, IRC’s South Sudan country director, said staff were traumatised and urged the authorities to let the aid agency know the results of their investigation into the killing, which occurred in unclear circumstances.
Staff needed to be guaranteed security to continue providing “life-saving humanitarian services to host and displaced communities in South Sudan”, she said.
President Salva Kiir and his former rival Riek Machar, now vice-president, formed a unity government following a deal to end a bitter civil war in February last year. However, insecurity in South Sudan remains rife.
To date a total of 126 aid workers, mostly South Sudanese, have been killed since the conflict broke out in late December 2013.
Source: BBC
