UN says it needs $200 mln urgently in S. Sudan

By Jeremy Clarke

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Friday it needed $200 million "right now" to cope with the humanitarian crisis in southern Sudan, less than a month before the vast region declares its independence.

Southerners voted in January to divide Africa's largest country in two, a poll promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with the north. Some 2 million people died in the conflict over ideology, ethnicity, religion and oil.

The underdeveloped south has been beset by violence and the mass movement of people since the vote, creating a humanitarian emergency compounded by the onset of an intense rainy season.

Analysts say the south risks being a failed state at birth if it cannot bring rampant insecurity and displacement under control.

"It looks like at this point we are probably going to need about $200 million in order to replenish the stocks we need and get them in place," Lise Grande, the U.N's top humanitarian official in the south, said in an interview.

"It really is a race against time at this stage because with the rainy season at its height, in probably less than two weeks large parts of the south will be inaccessible so we need to do it right now. We can't wait," she said.

Grande said at least half a million people were now "on the move" in southern Sudan, including more than 300,000 who have returned ahead of independence, and more than 200,000 who have fled violence.

The south's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) is fighting at least seven rebel militias, and tribal clashes erupt routinely over resources. More than 1,500 people have died in the violence this year, the United Nations says.