Displaced persons in Juba face food shortages

Two children and a mother starved to death at the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) camp in Juba’s Jebel area, IDPs say, adding that everyone, but especially children, are suffering, as food aid rations are delayed following the violent clashes earlier in July.

Humanitarians are working with what they have.

Acting UNMISS Spokesperson, Shantal Persaud, said the looting of a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse, during the days of deadly clashes, is one of the main causes. “All the food warehouses in Juba have been looted,” Persaud said, adding that “humanitarians are working with what they have” to serve the need of thousand of displaced people sheltering across Juba.

“I found two children and a lactating mother dead because of hunger,” Rebecca James, widow and a mother of two said. Rebecca fled to the UNMISS camp already in December 2013.

She said most IDPs who were there since 2013 shared their little food with the newly displaced people, who fled their homes to the UN camps following the recent violent clashes. The U.N. estimates that at least 36,000 people have been displaced during days of fightign in Juba.

The shortage of food at the IDP camps comes a week after WFP reported that its warehouses with 4,500 tones of food aid was looted. WFP said it is “outraged”, and that the food was “intended for over 220,000 poor and most vulnerable people” in a country at the brink of famine.

Rebecca said the IDPs haven’t received food since conflict broke out in Juba in July 8. “Right now in my house, I don’t have any food. My house is empty,” Rebecca said. “You couldn’t even find anything in the shop. All the things are already finished,” adding that women like her also fear to leave the camp and look for food.

Koboung Kuboum, another IDP, said life in the camps is becoming difficult because of the delayed food supply. He said they used to receive their rations between the 8th and 12th of every month, but till now, they haven’t received this month’s food ration. Koboum said water is also scarce.