New Zealand aid workers welcome Shearer appointment to UN

New Zealand aid workers welcome Shearer appointment to lead UN in South Sudan

Wednesday December 14, 2016

New Zealand’s aid workers are applauding the appointment of MP David Shearer to head the United Nation’s Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

“David Shearer is an inspired choice by the United Nations Security Council to lead one the most important – and also complex – peace operations in the world today,” said Mark Mitchell, Chair of the Council of International Development’s network of disaster relief agencies.

“As Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) to South Sudan, David Shearer will be drawing on his wealth of experience in both politics, and major peace and humanitarian operations around the world, to help find a durable resolution to one of the world’s worst ongoing conflicts.”

As SRSG, David Shearer will lead one of the United Nations’ largest peace operations, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). The mission includes over 16,000 civilian and military personnel, including peacekeeping troops and police from over 60 countries tasked to protect civilians, monitor human rights and support United Nations and other agencies to deliver urgently-needed relief supplies.

“New Zealand and other international relief agencies are on the ground in South Sudan, doing their best to stem the human suffering, but they cannot succeed without a capable United Nations partner. UNMISS needs effective leadership to build trust between warring parties, ensure unimpeded humanitarian access, and end attacks on civilians and humanitarian workers. It’s a big ask of anyone, but we believe David Shearer can rise to the challenge,” said Mitchell.

Following a power crisis erupted in Juba in 2013, South Sudan has spiraled into a national, political and ethnic conflict. More than 2.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes and as many as 4.8 million people are in desperate need for humanitarian assistance.

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