The aid organization Medair yesterday said that it was concerned about the effect of recent fighting in Renk County of South Sudan on humanitarian services and called on the warring parties to allow access for aid workers to safely do their jobs.

Clashes in the Renk area started since last Thursday causing many to flee from villages and from Renk town itself. The town now appears deserted.

Medair, a Swiss-based non-governmental organization working in Renk County since June 2011, explained that it chose to evacuate some of its personnel from Renk yesterday even as humanitarian needs increased owing to fresh displacement.

Since last Thursday, aid workers took shelter indoors amidst the fighting, according to Medair. They heard heavy shelling and gunfire and saw people fleeing in different directions.

“As the heavy fighting, such as shelling and gunfire, continued and was putting our staffs’ lives at risk, Medair reduced staff in Renk on Monday with the help of Mission Aviation Fellowship, who sent in their charter to relocate our staff,” a spokesperson of the organization explained in a written statement to Radio Tamazuj.

“It worries us to see the people we are helping having to run yet again, leaving behind what they just build up to flee for their lives again,” noted spokesperson Wendy van Amerongen.

In spite of reducing staff, Medair is continuing to provide emergency services, according to van Amerongen. She said that Medair’s clinics saw hundreds of patients on Monday.

The organization expressed concern that humanitarian access could be further limited should conflict continue.

“This conflict and insecurity is leading to the restriction of access for life-saving humanitarian aid to thousands of beneficiaries that need our support,” said the Medair spokesperson.

“The lives of thousands of innocent people are in danger. Medair therefore calls on all parties for safe-access to be granted to deliver aid.”

The organization Medair has provided water, sanitation and healthcare services to South Sudanese returnees transiting Renk since 2011, including people of all ethnicities who lived at these transit camps. They also helped host communities and people displaced by the new conflict that started in December 2013.

Photo: Patients waiting at a medical clinic in Wonthou, Renk County (Medair / Wendy van Amerongen)