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
Syrian refugee returns set to slow as donor support fades
- Some aid officials say Syria is one of the first crises to be hit by aid funding cuts because the end of the war means it no longer counts as an emergency, eligible for priority funding
GENEVA: More than 3 million Syrians have returned home since the collapse of Bashar Assad’s rule a year ago but a decline in global funding could deter others, the UN refugee agency said on Monday.
Some 1.2 million refugees in addition to 1.9 million internally displaced people have gone back home following the civil war that ended with Assad’s overthrow, but millions more are yet to return, according to UNHCR.
The agency said much more support was needed to ensure the trend continues.
“Syrians are ready to rebuild – the question is whether the world is ready to help them do it,” said UNHCR head Filippo Grandi. Over 5 million refugees remain outside Syria’s borders, mostly in neighboring countries like Jordan and Lebanon.
RISK OF REVERSALS
Grandi told donors in Geneva last week that there was a risk that those Syrians who are returning might even reverse their course and come back to host states.
“Returns continue in fairly large numbers but unless we step up broader efforts, the risk of (reversals) is very real,” he said.
Overall, Syria’s $3.19 billion humanitarian response is 29 percent funded this year, according to UN data, at a time when donors like the United States and others are making major cuts to foreign aid across the board.
The World Health Organization sees a gap emerging as aid money drops off before national systems can take over.
As of last month, only 58 percent of hospitals were fully functional and some are suffering power outages, affecting cold-chain storage for vaccines.
“Returnees are coming back to areas where medicines, staff and infrastructure are limited – adding pressure to already thin services,” Christina Bethke, Acting WHO Representative in Syria, told reporters.
The slow pace of removing unexploded ordnance is also a major obstacle to recovery, said the aid group Humanity & Inclusion, which reported over 1,500 deaths and injuries in the last year. Such efforts are just 13 percent funded, it said.
Some aid officials say Syria is one of the first crises to be hit by aid funding cuts because the end of the war means it no longer counts as an emergency, eligible for priority funding.
Others may have held back as they wait to see if authorities under President Ahmed Al-Sharaa make good on promises of reform and accountability, including for massacres of the Alawite minority in March, they say.
