Daily Times

JUBA: Improved harvest between October and December in South Sudan would reduce the number of people suffering from severe food insecurity in the East African country from 6 million in June to 4.8 million, but will not end the hunger crisis, UN agencies said in a joint report released on Monday.

According to the updated Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) by the South Sudan Bureau of Statistics, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, (FAO) UN children’s fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Program (WFP), the post harvest gains will not end the hunger crisis as conflict and hyperinflation persists in the East African country. The report warns that the food security situation is projected to deteriorate at the start of 2018 when households typically run out of food before the next harvest season.

Isaiah Chol Aruai, chairperson of the South Sudan Bureau of Statistics, said during the launch in Juba that humanitarian assistance and peace are critical in averting the deteriorating and catastrophic level food insecurity. The national dialogue and peace revitalization process as well as scaled up humanitarian assistance, if successfully implemented, will gradually improve food security situation between January and March 2018, he said.

Serge Tissot, FAO Representative in South Sudan, said that though a massive humanitarian response helped stop famine in parts of the country this year, the current harvest season has not brought much relief to the millions of people in South Sudan who don’t have enough food. Tissot said most of the country’s greenbelt has been ravaged by fighting, adding that the situation is predicted to worsen. “Finding a peaceful solution to this man-made tragedy should be the top priority or the situation will get even worse next year,” Tissot said.

Some 25,000 people are facing catastrophic conditions in two regions according to the IPC scale, adding that aid agencies are concerned about fate of civilians in the greater Baggari, in northwestern town of Wau, where 10 percent of the population is facing famine-like conditions because insecurity. The IPC analysis further says malnutrition has also worsened compared to the same period last year, with surveys showing malnutrition rates in most communities, above the World Health Organization’s emergency threshold of 15 percent.

Mahimbo Mdoe, UNIECF representative in South Sudan, said more than 1.1 million children under the age of five are forecast to be malnourished in 2018, including nearly 300,000 severely malnourished and at a heightened risk of death. “Too many children are going hungry in South Sudan. More than one in five of those struggling to feed themselves is a child under five years of age Sudan. This has created a malnutrition crisis that is putting many lives at risk,” Mdoe said. Humanitarian teams are facing enormous logistical and security challenges to reach communities in need.

South Sudan has been devastated by civil war that broke out in December 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup. Machar denied the accusation but then mobilized a rebel force. A peace deal signed in August 2015 led to the formation of a transitional unity government in April, but was again shattered by fresh violence in July, 2016. Tens of thousands of South Sudanese have been killed, with over 3.9 million displaced both internally and externally.

Published in Daily Times, November 7^th 2017.