‘Worst fears’ for South Sudan
Famine declared in parts of nation by government, UN
KAMPALA, Uganda — Famine has been declared in two counties of South Sudan, according to an announcement by the South Sudan government and three U.N. agencies, which says the calamity is the result of prolonged civil war and an entrenched economic crisis that has devastated the wartorn East African nation.
The official classification of famine highlights the human suffering caused by South Sudan’s three-year civil war and even as it is declared President Salva Kiir’s government is blocking food aid to some areas, according to U.N. officials.
More than 100,000 people in two counties of Unity state are experiencing famine and there are fears that the famine will spread as an additional 1 million South Sudanese are on the brink of starvation, said the announcement.
“Our worst fears have been realized,” said Serge Tissot, head of the Food and Agriculture Organization in South Sudan. He said the war has disrupted the otherwise fertile country, causing civilians to rely on “whatever plants they can find and fish they can catch.”
Roughly 5.5 million people, or about 50 percent of South Sudan’s population, are expected to be severely food insecure and at risk of death in the coming months, said the report. It added that nearly three-quarters of all households in the country suffer from inadequate food.
If food aid does not reach children urgently “many of them will die,” said Jeremy Hopkins, head of the U.N children’s agency in South Sudan. Over 250,000 children are severely malnourished Hopkins said, meaning they are at risk of death.
It is not the first time South Sudan has experienced starvation. When it fought for independence from Sudan in 1998, the territory suffered from a famine spurred by civil war. Anywhere from 70,000 to several hundred thousand people died during that famine. But Monday’s declaration of starvation is solely South Sudan’s creation, and a U.N. official blamed the country’s politicians for the humanitarian crisis.
“This famine is manmade,”said Joyce Luma, head of the World Food Program in South Sudan. “There is only so much that humanitarian assistance can achieve in the absence of meaningful peace and security.”
Perhaps nowhere else has civil war caused such a drastic decline in South Sudan’s food security than in Central Equatoria state, according to the report. Traditionally South Sudan’s breadbasket, Central Equatoria has been hit by fighting and ethnically targeted killings that began in July 2016 and have displaced over half a million residents and disrupted agricultural production. As a result, more than a third of Central Equatoria’s population is now facing crisis or emergency levels of hunger, according to the report.
South Sudan’s widespread hunger has been compounded by an economic crisis as well. South Sudan is experiencing severe inflation and the value of its currency has plummeted 800 percent in the past year, which has made food unaffordable for many families.