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Reuters James Akena
Archives – South Sudan
The Government of Southern Sudan and United Nations agencies announced that more than 7.2 million people will suffer from acute malnutrition in the middle of 2021 in the country, that is, nearly 60% of the population.
According to a joint report, nearly 1.4 million children in South Sudan, a country torn apart by decades of conflict, will suffer from serious malnutrition in 2021 and will need life-saving treatment.
The report, which was formulated with the support of the United Nations, is based on the “IBC” (Integrated Framework for Classification of Food Security) index, which includes 5 levels of severity of the situation: minimum, under pressure, crisis, emergency and famine.
“The number is the highest since Sudan declared its independence in 2011,” said McKenna Walker, Assistant Director of the World Food Program in Juba, noting that it is 5% higher compared to last year.
Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Mishak Malo, called on the parties to the conflict to allow humanitarian aid to reach Pibor “to prevent an already terrible situation from turning into a real disaster.”
Aroy called for a rapid increase in humanitarian assistance “with the aim of saving lives and avoiding a complete collapse of the livelihoods of the population, especially in the most affected areas.”
For his part, the head of the National Bureau of Statistics in Juba, Isaiah Scholl Arwai, said in the latest assessment of the current situation that “the situation regarding food security and nutrition has deteriorated.”
He added, “This is a result of the displacement of people from pockets of insecurity, the decline of crops due to climatic shocks such as floods and droughts, as well as the impact of the Corona epidemic, the economic crisis, the invasion of a locust wave and inappropriate humanitarian assistance.”
The latest assessment of the situation estimates that about 5.8 million people are at risk of finding themselves in a food “crisis” (that is, level 3: severe food shortages and acute malnutrition) between December 2020 and March 2021, and this number is expected to rise to 7.2 million by July.
Source: “AFP”
