South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Benjamin Takpiny
Over 720,000 refugees and returnees who arrived in South Sudan from war-torn neighboring Sudan face a worsening hunger crisis amid soaring food insecurity and a deteriorating humanitarian situation.
“Already alarming levels of hunger and acute malnutrition in South Sudan are expected to intensify during the current lean season, when food stocks are severely depleted and food prices on local markets increase due to worsening inflation,” said the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in a statement on Monday in Juba.
It noted that the situation for vulnerable households, especially in returnee and refugee-hosting States is exacerbated by the unusually rainy season which usually runs from late April to October, with severe flooding expected.
“Without a significant increase in support in South Sudan, more than half of the country’s population, over 7 million people, is expected to experience hunger by the end of this year and 79,000 people will likely experience the worst extremes of starvation. Children are particularly vulnerable with 1.65 million severely malnourished children under five at high risk of dying if they don’t receive food and nutrition treatment,” it said.
Caroline Sekyewa, IRC South Sudan Country Director said that families are taking extreme steps to cope, even going days without food.
Sekyewa said that malnourished children that survive this crisis will likely experience stunted growth and challenges in mental development, adding that urgent nutritional interventions are needed to reduce mortality rates, particularly among vulnerable children.
She disclosed that IRC is scaling up life-saving nutritional interventions to the affected population.
“We have deployed a rapid response team to support refugees at the Aweil East entry point and transit center in the north west of the country. This is one of the areas where the highest levels of hunger are expected. IRC will screen all under -five children and pregnant and breast-feeding women on arrival, providing treatment to those that need it,” said Sekyewa.
She noted that IRC will also implement an infant and young child feeding program through both mobile nutrition services at entry points and at transit sites.
IRC is also working to strengthen the capacity of healthcare workers to scale up awareness and bolster referral systems.
Despite humanitarian partners scaling up response to the affected population, only 30 percent of the $1.7 billion needed to reduce the suffering has been met in South Sudan.
The humanitarian appeal in Sudan has only reached 31.5 percent of the $2.7 billion needed.
