"I am deeply saddened by this senseless act," Eugene Owusu, the
U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan said in a statement on
Wednesday.
UN condemns killing of Slovakian nun (Radiovaticana)
The United Nations' most senior humanitarian official in South Sudan denounced on Wednesday the killing of a Slovakian nun who was working as a doctor in the country, where violence is hampering efforts to relieve widespread hunger and sickness.
Sister Veronika Racková is
the 54th aid worker to be killed in South Sudan since violence erupted
in the world's youngest nation in December 2013, the United Nations
said.
"I am deeply saddened by this senseless act," Eugene Owusu, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Violence against humanitarian workers and humanitarian assets is categorically unacceptable and must stop."
Aid
workers in South Sudan have been hit by a surge in violent crime,
particularly robberies, which the United Nations has said is hampering
their life-saving work.
Racková was shot in the
waist on the night of May 15 while driving an ambulance back from a
medical centre where she had been delivering a baby.
She died in hospital in neighbouring Kenya five days later.
Civil
war broke out in South Sudan in 2013 following a political dispute
between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar, killing
thousands and forcing more than 2.3 million people to flee their homes.
Many displaced people are hiding in bushes without access to food, clean water or medicines.
Under
international pressure, the two leaders signed a peace deal in August,
and Kiir re-appointed Machar as vice president and named a new "national unity" cabinet in April.
Racková,
58, had lived in the southern town of Yei, 150 km (90 miles) southwest
of South Sudan's capital, Juba, since 2010, according to the Holy Spirit
Missionary Sisters, of which she was a member.
The government has arrested three soldiers in connection with the shooting, local media said.
Three
people were injured on April 25 when a rocket propelled grenade hit a
U.N. compound in the northern town of Bentiu, which is home to over
100,000 displaced people.
إرسال تعليق