•  united nations
• Wednesday, July 06, 2011
• Inter Press Service

Kirsten Hagon, head of Oxfam’s New York office, Tuesday urged the Security Council not to cut funding for the next UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. 'If there was ever a time for the Security Council and countries that contribute to peace keeping to support the people of Sudan, it is now'.

'Violence is rising and this isn’t the time to go cheap by cutting on the budget of the future UN mission, on the number of boots on the ground or the number of civilian staff.' Hagon said in a statement released here. The Security Council is to meet later this week to discuss budget and personnel cuts for the next South Sudan mission, and Oxfam has warned that any reduction in funding or resources would 'undermine the progress that has been made over the past six years'

Oxfam has argued that maintaining the funding of the mission is paramount, especially now, since over 1800 South Sudanese have been killed in the first few months of 2011 alone, as opposed to less than 1000 in all of 2010. While the government has done its part to protect its citizens from violence, Oxfam contends that help from the international community is still needed in order to ' keep civilians safe and promote law and order.' Hagon also lamented the lack of equity of the monetary support being provided around the world.

'Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent in Afghanistan and more recently over US$ 1 billion was spent in three months in Libya. That is the cost of the current UN mission in Sudan for a whole year. Southern Sudanese deserve to get the full backing of the UN Security Council' she said.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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