Concern CEO welcomes €3m Irish Aid funding for crisis-hit South Sudan

The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Coveney and Minister of State for the Diaspora and International Development, Ciarán Cannon announced that €3 million of Irish funding will go towards the UN South Sudan Humanitarian Fund.

Welcoming Irish Aid’s announcement today, Mr Dominic MacSorley said: “Almost five years into this brutal civil war, the toll of human suffering is appalling. This new injection of critically-needed funding is a demonstration that Ireland is consistently focusing on where the needs are greatest and has not forgotten those caught up in the conflict.”

South Sudan - the world’s youngest country - is in the midst of a brutal civil war, which has resulted in large-scale displacement, food insecurity and malnutrition since it started in 2013.

Seven million people, over half the country’s population, are in need of humanitarian assistance with almost two-thirds of the population at risk of hunger. 

Concern has had an operational base in the East African country since 1998 and reached 840,000 people in 2017 providing emergency nutrition as well as shelter, clean water and latrine facilities across Unity state, Northern Bahr el Ghazal and in the capital Juba.

The Irish humanitarian aid agency is ensuring the 53,000 people living in the Bentiu Protection of Civilian camp and two nearby towns have access to safe, clean water and also provides emergency nutrition assistance to tens of thousands of severely malnourished South Sudanese refugees in Gambella in neighbouring Ethiopia.

For more information or interviews contact our media relations team on 0867834846 or email catriona.loughran@concern.net.