(PHOTO: REUTERS/ANDREEA CAMPEANU)
Over 35 humanitarian agencies have warned in a major report that close to two million people in South Sudan are facing severe food insecurity in the man-made crisis stemming from in-fighting, unless more aid is delivered to those who urgently need it.
“So far the soft approach of the international community in the peace negotiations has failed to secure a meaningful ceasefire,” the report says.
A ceasefire was signed earlier this year between the government of President Salva Kiir and a rebel group linked to former Vice President Riek Machar, but the situation has not stabilized and fighting continues on a large scale throughout the country.
“If the international community really wants to avert a famine then it has to make bold diplomatic efforts to bring both sides to end fighting,” said Tariq Riebl, head of Oxfam in South Sudan.
The report states that due to fighting, 1.7 million people, or one in every seven, have already fled their homes, and 450,000 of them have sought safety in other countries. Some areas have reported that one in three children are malnourished, which is a crisis seen only during famine. Experts have said that in 2015 the situation is expected to worsen significantly, and the number of severely hungry people will rise by one million between January and March, affecting half the population in total.
Although the African nation has managed to avoid a famine situation in 2014, the people “are now at the end of their tether,” according to Aimee Ansari, head of relief group CARE in South Sudan.
“Eating seeds meant for planting keeps the gnawing hunger away for the moment, but it is mortgaging the future to meet the desperate needs of the present,” Ansari added.
“The people of South Sudan did what they could to survive this year – but that means they will be vulnerable next year.”
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SOURCE: The Christian Post
Stoyan Zaimov
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