After the rains begin in May or June, most of the state will become inaccessible for about six months
NAIROBI, April 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Fighting in the capital of South Sudan's Upper Nile State is blocking the urgent delivery of aid to the rest of the state before the rainy season begins, a senior U.N. humanitarian affairs official said on Thursday.
Malakal town is the operations hub for aid agencies in the state, where an estimated 245,000 people have been displaced by fighting.
After the rains begin in May or June, most of the state will become inaccessible for about six months.
"We cannot lose a day when it comes to preparation for the rainy season or we pay for it brutally for six months, and the assistance simply does not go to where it needs to go," said Sue Lautze, Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in South Sudan.
Thousands of people have been killed and more than a million have fled their homes in South Sudan since fighting between supporters of President Salva Kiir and those of former vice president Riek Machar erupted in the world's newest nation in December 2013.
Several ceasefires have been agreed and broken and each side accuses the other of violating one announced in early February.
Clashes in the past three weeks have displaced thousands from Malakal, which is in government-held territory.
Flights cannot land at Malakal airport, and barges and lorries cannot move because of the fighting, which seems to be related to disputes within the government army, Lautze said.
"Once the rains come this place turns into about the worst mudhole that you can possibly imagine," she added.
Lautze was speaking by phone from a U.N. base outide Malakal, where an estimated 28,000 people are sheltering. Others who have fled the town are sheltering in camps nearby.
"Now it's virtually impossible to survive as a civilian in Malakal town," she said. "(The U.N. base) is the only safe place to be when there's fighting."
Aid groups said they had been forced to reduce their operations in parts of the state.
Humanitarian workers have left the rebel-held town of Pagak, near the border with Ethiopia, after being harassed and threatened, and their freedom of movement impeded, OCHA said in a statement on Thursday.
"The organisations are no longer able to conduct their work on behalf of populations in need in an impartial, neutral and safe manner," OCHA said in a statement.
"As a consequence, aid workers have left Pagak until a time when the conditions for them to be present there, on behalf of civilians in need, are re-established," it added.
The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres suspended some operations in Upper Nile State on Wednesday, and the World Food Programme said it was reviewing its operations in the state following the abduction of one of its staff and the disappearance of three others earlier this month. (Writing by Alex Whiting, Editing by Tim Pearce)
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