JUBA OCTOBER 23, 2015 (CISA) – The UNICEF has issued a report warning that nearly 4 million people in South Sudan face “severe food insecurity” with tens of thousands existing on the brink of famine, starvation and death.
This is the first time since the nation’s civil war erupted two years ago which lead to parts of the population falling into the fifth and most dire stage of food insecurity.
Some families now endure on a single meal a day of water lilies and fish, the statement said.
In a country where the food supply depends on subsistence farming, the fighting has been so disruptive that some 10 million livestock have been scattered, some of them wandering into other countries.
“Livelihoods have been severely affected by high inflation rates, market disruption, conflict-related displacement, and loss of livestock and agricultural production,” said Serge Tissot, the head of the Food and Agriculture Organization in South Sudan.
The crisis has crept into previously unaffected areas, like the Bahr el Ghazal states in the country’s west, and even as South Sudan enters harvesting season, a time that usually promises some hunger relief, a third of the population lacks necessary nutrition.
The violence of the civil war has cut off humanitarian access to that in need in Unity State. The sliver of land on the White Nile risks deteriorating into famine without aid, the UN groups warned.
“Agencies can support, but only if we have unrestricted access,” said Jonathan Veitch, a UNICEF representative in South Sudan adding. “If we do not, many children may die.”
