JUBA: Almost 7.7 million people in South Sudan face crisis levels of hunger, the United Nations said Wednesday, many located in the country’s restive northeast rocked by recent clashes.
The deeply impoverished nation has battled instability and insecurity since independence in 2011, with violence between forces allied to the president and his deputy further threatening to destabilize the country.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement Wednesday that 7.7 million people face the third-highest category of need – defined as “crisis, emergency, or catastrophic.”
“This is close to record highs,” the statement said.
Around 63,000 people were defined as of the highest need and 2.53 million the category below, most located in the northeastern Upper Nile State region, a spokesperson said.
That part of the country is enduring an uptick in violence as forces allied to President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar clash.
Machar is currently under house arrest in capital Juba, leaving his party to appoint Stephen Par Kuol as interim leader.
The WFP said the Upper Nile region was the “most impacted by the escalation of conflict,” with one million people facing “high levels of hunger.”
“There is no shelter at all and there is scarcity of food,” Reath Yian Ulang, 32, said from Ulang county in Upper Nile State.
“We used to rely on food brought by traders from Ethiopia but because of the current crisis the traders have all fled back to Ethiopia in fear,” the father-of-four said by phone.
“People now drink water from the swamps.”
The agency also said efforts to get life-saving assistance to those in the direst need was being hampered by the violence.
“Insecurity has forced WFP to pause distributions in six counties in the region for the safety of our staff, partners and the people we serve,” it said.
Additionally, more than 1.1 million people have fled to South Sudan since the start of the two-year civil war in Sudan – most arriving in the Upper Nile region – and almost half are facing “catastrophic” levels of hunger, WFP added in the statement.
South Sudan is also grappling with a cholera outbreak, with UNICEF saying roughly 40,000 cases have been reported since September including almost 700 deaths – with children disproportionately affected.
The United States’ decision to slash international aid has also impacted the country, with humanitarian workers warning children were dying as a result of remote facilities being closed.
UN: Almost 7.7 million in South Sudan face ‘crisis’ hunger levels
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UN: Almost 7.7 million in South Sudan face ‘crisis’ hunger levels
- The deeply impoverished nation has battled instability and insecurity since independence in 2011
- Violence between forces allied to the president and his deputy further threatens to destabilize the country
First responders enter devastated Aleppo neighborhood after days of deadly fighting
- The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army
ALEPPO, Syria: First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid Al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
