{"id":149251,"date":"2025-10-28T08:58:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T08:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/149251\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T08:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T08:58:12","slug":"neeson-condemns-aid-cuts-after-visiting-south-sudan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/149251\/","title":{"rendered":"Neeson condemns aid cuts after visiting South Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Irish actor Liam Neeson has warned that children should not have to &#8220;fend for themselves&#8221; after hundreds of &#8220;lifesaving&#8221; treatment centres closed in South Sudan.<\/p>\n<p>The actor, 73, known for Taken and Schindler&#8217;s List, visited South Sudan to see how global funding cuts have impacted local communities and the lives of young people across the country.<\/p>\n<p>The visit comes after nearly 200 nutrition sites have closed as a result of foreign aid cuts. Neeson, who is also a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, said: &#8220;I visited the main referral hospital in the capital Juba and was deeply saddened by seeing so many malnourished children.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They are hauntingly quiet when they should be laughing, sleeping when they should be playing, crying when they should be smiling.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With treatment sites closing around the country, I ask myself what will happen to those children?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Liam Neeson Sudan\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/002361ae-614.jpg\"\/><br \/>\nLiam Neeson with Alaak Kuku, the founder of the Young Dreams Foundation (YDF), during a YDF Academy sports tournament in Juba<\/p>\n<p>Neeson added: &#8220;The world cannot turn its back on children like those I met in South Sudan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Funding cuts are threatening lifesaving programmes for children across the world. Investing in children so they are healthy, safe and learning makes societies stronger, healthier, more stable and peaceful.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Children shouldn&#8217;t have to fend for themselves. We either stand with them now or watch their future slip away.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Liam Neeson Sudan\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/002361ad-614.jpg\"\/><br \/>\nNeeson sitting with Josephine Mitaindure, 29, as her 3-month-old daughter, Eliana Asiaka, is vaccinated against polio<\/p>\n<p>Neeson, who was last seen in The Naked Gun reboot alongside Pamela Anderson, said the experience was &#8220;joyful&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He leads the film as Frank Drebin Jr, the bumbling, coffee-chugging leader of Police Squad and the son of late comedy legend Leslie Nielsen&#8217;s detective from the original trio of films, while Anderson plays femme fatale Beth Davenport, who becomes involved with Frank Drebin Jr when he begins investigating her brother&#8217;s mysterious death.<\/p>\n<p>Read our The Naked Gun review <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/entertainment\/2025\/0801\/1526099-the-naked-gun-reboot-will-knock-your-socks-off\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For more movie news, click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/entertainment\/2025\/1024\/1540434-jamie-lee-odonnell-set-for-rebel-wilson-comedy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source: Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish actor Liam Neeson has warned that children should not have to &#8220;fend for themselves&#8221; after hundreds of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-149251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news","22":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115450970580040275","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}