South Sudan faces widespread famine as violence continues
Aid agencies warn that famine will become widespread in South Sudan within weeks if no action is taken.
If the conflict in South Sudan continues, and more aid cannot be delivered, by August it is likely that some areas of South Sudan will slip into famine,” Salef Saeed from Britain’s Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) warned in early July.
A famine can be declared only when certain measures of mortality, malnutrition and hunger are met. They are: at least 20 per cent of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope; acute malnutrition rates exceed 30 per cent; and the death rate exceeds two persons per day per 10,000 persons. (Source: WFP)The violence has displaced an estimated 1.5 million people according to a United Nations (UN) report and thousands of people have been killed, although there is no official death toll in the country. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are crammed inside squalid camps in UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) bases across South Sudan.
The term famine is used when at least 20 percent of households face extreme food shortages and when there is acute malnutrition in the country.
South Sudan’s looming famine is entirely man-made. Rains this year are hoped to be around average or slightly below average, according to UN experts, who say that the lack of food is to blame on fighting, which broke out last December, rather than the climate.
Peter B. S. Gama in his office, June 11.
Peter B. S. Gama, Assistant Professor of Horticulture at the University of Juba, says many citizens face a looming disaster. Citizens will depend on hand-out food,” Gama says, adding that people wanted to grow their own crops but were fearful of getting caught up in the ongoing conflict. He warns many more lives would be lost if the crisis continues.
According to a food security analyst, the famine can only be stopped if the violence halts. If not, he says, citizens would be forced to survive for years on hand-outs.
Despite last months deal between South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar, fighting continues, leaving locals at risk. There is no guarantee from this previous peace deal, nothing to convince any civilians to return to his/her home,” the analyst remarks.
Many locals who remain at home have not cultivated any crops as they fear they may have to run at any moment. These people have no desire to farm,” he says.
The DEC coalition have less than half the money they need to help prevent the growing food crisis in South Sudan turning into a catastrophe”.
Meanwhile, he adds, people fleeing for their lives would not start to farm on other people’s lands.
DEC Chief Salef Saeed warns of a very real risk of famine in some areas”, adding that millions of people face an extreme food crisis.
The DEC coalition, which includes agencies such as Oxfam, Tearfund and Save the Children have less than half the money they need to help prevent the growing food crisis in South Sudan turning into a catastrophe”, he says in a statement.
As of July 3, the United Nations has around 40 percent of the cash it aimed to collect to ease the food crisis, leaving a shortfall of around one billion US dollars for the South Sudan Crisis Response Plan.
Potholes are the pits
Food transportation is impeded by the country’s poor road network. This reality is worsened by the start of the rainy season, which has turned many unpaved roads into rivers of mud. Fighting has also prevented aid agencies from moving the food to where it is really needed. You can have food in Western Equatoria, but you cannot trade to Upper Nile, Unity, or Jonglei State,” Gama says.
However, the environment in South Sudan is conducive to growing crops in the future, giving Gama some scope for optimism: One day we should be the one exporting, not importing food.”
