South Sudan has been struggling to recover from a five-year civil war. Following a power crisis which erupted in 2013, South Sudan has spiraled into a conflict, which has spread across most parts of the country and leading to the death of tens of thousands of people.
More than 4 million people 1 in 3 have been forced to flee their homes due to this brutal war. Nearly 2.5 million have fled to neighbouring countries. There are now 1 million South Sudanese refugees in Uganda, making up about half of the country’s total refugee population.
UNICEF, @WFP and @FAO are calling for immediate humanitarian access to parts of South Sudan’s Pibor County in Jonglei State, where people have run out of food and are facing catastrophic levels of hunger.https://t.co/CvDZn886I9
— UNICEF (@UNICEF) December 18, 2020
A new UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report projects that from April to July 2021, an estimated 7.24 million people, or 60 per cent of the country’s population, face either a state of official food crisis, or worsening acute food insecurity, with the hardest hit areas in Warrap, Jonglei and Northern Bahr el Ghazal states.
The conflict has pushed the country into an economic free-fall with food and fuel prices skyrocketing and an ever-rising cost of living. Trade and local markets have been disrupted and food stock has depleted.
As people are forced from their homes, they lose their possessions, crops and income, and often get stranded in places where there aren’t enough facilities to support tens of thousands of new arrivals.
Daily Briefing: Over 1,000 Killed in Six Months in South Sudan: UN
The new finding by international food security experts means this could be the first part of the world in famine since one was declared in 2017 in another part of the country then deep in civil war.
Climate shocks, conflict, poor living conditions and public services, limited access to humanitarian aid and safe water, and inadequate hygiene practices are all key drivers of undernutrition. – UN
The country is one of four countries with areas that could slip into famine, the United Nations has warned, along with Yemen, Burkina Faso and northeastern Nigeria.
South Sudan also has one of the highest child mortality rates in the world with more than 90 children out of 1,000 dying before the age of five, according to Save the Children, a leadng humanitarian organization for children.
Severe flooding in 2019 impacted livelihoods: reports indicate that 74,157 hectares of cultivated land was damaged and 72,611 metric tons grain were lost. The effects will be felt in 2020: large parts of the population are expected to face greater food deficits during upcoming lean seasons.
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