WFP says plan to feed 1.7m South Sudanese in 2018

November 30, 2017 (JUBA) – The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said plans to feed 1.7 million people in South Sudan after its identified a new route in Aweil, a town in the Bahr El-Ghazal region.

The agency, in a statement issued Wednesday, said 19 trucks it had contracted and loaded with 500 tonnes of sorghum left El Obeid in Central Sudan on 22 November and arrived five days later in Aweil.

“This strengthens our ability to move large amounts of life-saving food assistance by road into South Sudan,” the WFP country director for South Sudan, Adnan Khan said in the statement.

Khan also praised the Sudanese government for providing a third humanitarian corridor at this crucial time, noting that WFP and its partners provided assistance to 2.6 million people in October.

WFP said it plans to use the new route regularly to deliver 30,000 tonnes of life-saving assistance into South Sudan in 2018 with donor support.

The number of people experiencing severe food insecurity from October-December is likely to rise to 4.8 million, UN figures showed.

This year, the agency said it assisted 4.6 million people in South Sudan with 208,000 tonnes of food and $ 24.5 million given in cash.

Last month, a report to the Security Council accused South Sudan government of using food as a weapon of war to target civilians by blocking life-saving aid in some areas.

According to the confidential UN report between 2016 and 2017, a campaign allegedly carried by government troops in South Sudan’s Wau state and areas in Western Bahr el-Ghazal targeted civilians on ethnic grounds, displacing over 100,000 people.

The UN report also faulted President Salva Kiir’s government for food insecurity situation in a nation where 1.2 million people risk starvation.

The South Sudanese conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced over two million people.

(ST)