The United Nations warns that the COVID-19 pandemic, floods, and conflicts have plunged South Sudan population into extreme hunger with many people’s lives at stake.
UN agencies predict that next year will be even worse if the intercommunal conflict in the Jonglei state does not end. A new UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) estimates that, between October and November 2020, 6.5 million people in South Sudan suffered acute famine. The report predicts that from April to July 2021 this will be as many as 7.24 million which represents almost 60% of the entire population of the country. The most affected area is Pibor county where, according to the UN records, 1.4 million children between 6 months and 5 years will be acutely malnourished next year and UNICEF warns that many may die if they do not receive urgent treatment. In this year alone, UNICEF helped 170,000 children who were impacted by hunger with 94% making a recovery. Famine also affects 483,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women who require urgent treatment as well.
Unfortunately, the UN aid agencies have no access to people living in Pibor county, located in Jonglei state, where the situation is the most dramatic and where people require immediate help. The wave of violence has made access more difficult and representatives of aid organizations have called for an end to the fighting. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative in South Sudan, Meshack Malo said, “We call on all parties to stop the violence and to ensure safe humanitarian access in order to prevent an already dire situation from turning into a full-blown catastrophe.”
The dramatic situation in South Sudan is not the result of conflict alone but has also been driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and floods. The combination of two has caused a food crisis following the devastation of both crops and the infrastructure such as the roads or markets. The chain of supplies came to a halt and food prices surged making it unaffordable for many people.
Apart from Pibor, the other communities most affected are in Akobo, Aweil South, Tonj East, Tonj North, and Tonj South counties. By mid-December, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) was able to meet the food needs of 80,000 people living in Pibor during the last two months but this is still not enough. The FAO has made efforts to support about 100,000 farming families, to restore their crops and harvests. However, the current level of assistance is certainly insufficient to avoid famine despite the UN having decided to allocate US$7 million to address the crisis using emergency funding.
However, current unrest is a serious obstacle for humanitarian aid organizations to effectively provide any kind of assistance. Although the South Sudan government was able to reach a peace agreement and together with opposition created a transitional government in February 2020, local clashes are still ongoing. It is estimated that only last year 2,000 people died as a result of local conflicts with 600 of these having been killed in Jonglei state. South Sudan is also a very dangerous location for humanitarian aid workers with over 120 people killed since the beginning of the conflict in 2013 and nine aid workers killed in 2020.
