100,000 people are suffering from hunger — real hunger — in South Sudan, and 5 million are affected by famine. The latest report from Fao, Wfp and Unicef is chilling.
At least 100,000 people are suffering from hunger in South Sudan due to the famine affecting the African country, particularly the territory of the north-central state of Unity (Unity State). Another million South Sudanese could face the same fate in the near future as a result of the civil war that resumed in December 2013, which has dragged the population into a vortex of violence. The news was announced by the Juba government itself together with the United Nations following the latest update of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (Integrated food security phase classification, Ipc). In total, however, nearly 5 million people are in need of urgent food, agricultural and nutritional assistance. That is equal to 40 per cent of the population.
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Famine "is not a word we use lightly and I had hoped I would never have to use it for South Sudan," said Wfp spokesperson Challiss McDonough. "But unfortunately we have reached a point where we must use these words." Famine, in fact, means – according to UN standards – that people are literally dying of hunger.
Serge Tissot, representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Fao) for South Sudan, echoes this: "Famine has become a tragic reality in parts of South Sudan and our worst fears have materialised. Many families have exhausted every means they had available to try to survive."
For this reason, nearly three million people have been forced to abandon their homes and their land, and many have taken refuge in neighbouring Uganda. "I had sown and was waiting for the harvest, but I lost everything because of the war. They kill people and many have died; I was afraid of meeting the same end," a South Sudanese refugee told Euronews.
In addition to hunger, a direct consequence of the war, 50,000 people have died over the past three years as a result of clashes between government troops loyal to incumbent president Salva Kiir Mayardit and former rebels supporting first vice-president Riek Machar, who was already removed from his post in 2013 on suspicion of treason and later reinstated to prevent tensions and clashes — the very ones currently under way.
Three UN humanitarian agencies are currently on the ground: in addition to Fao and Wfp, there is also Unicef, the children's fund. Children are indeed among the worst affected: "It is estimated that more than one million children are suffering from acute malnutrition across South Sudan. More than 250,000 children are already severely malnourished. If we do not reach these children with urgent assistance, many of them will die," said Jeremy Hopkins, representative of Unicef in South Sudan.
The risk is that the efforts being made will not be enough and that, without a new and more effective intervention by the international community, the number of malnourished people or those suffering from hunger could rise further, reaching 5.5 million by July. For all these reasons, "we must act now."
