Famine fuels cycle of violence in Eastern Equatoria

As food prices soar and crops fail, South Sudan’s Kapoeta and Torit residents fear that their situation could deteriorate further. The economic crisis of the past five months has made it hard for people in the region to survive, and a lack of food prompted many to flee to neighbouring countries like Kenya and Uganda where they set up temporary bases in refugee camps. The few who risked staying at home continued lacking reliable sources of food and faced looting and attacks from their neighbours.

Meanwhile, food prices have continued to soar, prompting residents to fear for the worst in the near future. Youth in the South Sudanese communities have resorted to getting resources using force or violence in order to feed their desperate families. Looting, robberies and banditry abound along the roads and there has been an increase in cattle raids around the Eastern Equatoria region over the last few weeks.

Rosa Namaraka, a widowed mother of three from Didinga of Loudo Payam in Namorunyang State, retold the story of her village Ngatuba, where more than 30 women and children were killed and several were wounded in May, allegedly by their neighbours from the Toposa ethnic group from Kapoeta East County.

Margaret Ihisa, mother of six in Torit County, has expressed her disappointment over the government’s failure to provide emergency help. The state governments of both Namorunyang and Imatong have called for humanitarian assistance for the hard-pressed populations. Amid hunger and food shortages, they have sought support from International humanitarian agencies, the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Higher Commissioners for Refugees (UNHCR) and others.

Especially the youth have decided to apply violence to loot, rob at gun point.

A few international organisations have responded, including the government of the China who donated thousands of rice bags to the 28 states, but the population complains the response is far from enough to make a dent in the widespread shortages. “We are helplessly stranded. We do not know where to go from here with our kids. The hunger has increased fights, violence all over. Especially the youth have decided to apply violence to loot, rob at gun point,” said a group of South Sudanese women in Eastern Equatoria. “We are appealing to international organisations to show up with rapid humanitarian intervention.”

Speaking last week, the former Wildlife Conservation and Tourism Industry Director Perina Lawino, said: “We should lay down the arms and start with forgiveness to build the nation South Sudan. With peace, hunger will sneak through windows and eventually disappear.”

Commodity prices have skyrocketed, with treble-digit price surges in basics including beans, onions and meat, and there are fears that the prices will go higher still. Most of the commodities consumed and sold in the local markets are imported from the neighbouring countries and the traders have complained their prices are climbing due to poor roads and the high cost of fuel.

The South Sudan annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 58.7 percent from August 2014 to August 2015, according to the South Sudan National Bureau of Statistics report released in September 2015. The increase was mainly driven by high prices in food and non‐alcoholic beverages. The State Chairperson of Commerce in Torit, Lily Hidita Nartiso, charges the government to address the issue pertaining enough dollars supply to traders to enable them purchase enough commodities, especially food items. She complains that last year, the Letters of Credit (LCs) ended up in wrong hands, as individuals misused the LCs on the expense of the country’s population who suffer a great deal. 

We are disturbed by problems like failing to get aid for civilians.

But the government has defended its role in protecting citizens: “We have never spent nights in peace. We are disturbed by problems like failing to get aid for civilians and measures related to price stabilisation. We never sleep in peace, our citizens need to know that,” said a government official in the Office of the State Secretariat of the Governor, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The ongoing prolonged dry spell that lasted through April, May and now June have meant that crops have failed. Many citizens are disappointed, saying that this year’s produce may be zero. One government Civil Servant in the State Public Service and Labour Ministry, William Loker, regretted that his two children have abandoned school because of his low monthly income, which makes food hard to afford, let alone education. Loker said the government would need to raise his salary ten times to allow him to sustain his two kids and mother while paying school fees.