JUBA MARCH 21, 2017(CISA) – Italian Catholic Bishops Conference (CEI) has donated €1 Million through Caritas International to help fight the famine in South Sudan.
Don Dante Carraro, director of Cuamm, one of the Non-Governmental organizations that will handle the donation allocated by the Italian bishops for the crisis, said that the hunger situation in the country and the horn of Africa was alarming and needed urgent interventions.
“Hunger in South Sudan and the Horn of Africa is a concrete and tangible reality and over 24 million people risk dying of starvation in the next weeks if more interventions are not put in place,” Reuters quoted Don Carraro as saying March 17.
He noted that the famine situation in South Sudan was further preceded by constant wars and state of anarchy in some parts of the world youngest nation.
On February 24, The Catholic bishops of South Sudan appealed for “immediate and unconditional concrete intervention” to end the humanitarian situation in the country.
The bishops warned in a statement that an estimated 4.9 million people will be in food crisis and many close to famine by April.
They added: “The figure is expected to rise to 5.5 million people at the height of the lean season in July if nothing is done to curb the severity and spread of the food crisis.”
Aid agencies said 100,000 people were affected by the famine, which threaten to affect a further one million people in the coming months.
“The situation is the worst hunger catastrophe since fighting erupted more than three years ago in South Sudan and we appeal for support to deal with the situation,” said a statement by the World Food Programme (WFP), UN children’s agency UNICEF and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
