Fighting undermining food security in South Sudan
Dec 5, 2006 (NAIROBI) — Attacks on communities in southern Sudan, such as the fighting in Malakal in Upper Nile State last week, are affecting food security and hampering improvements from recent harvests, an early-warning agency warned.
In Northern Bahr El Ghazal and Warrap States, the June-September harvest could sustain food needs until early next year, but increasing civil insecurity threatened to worsen an improving situation, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net), said in an alert on Monday.
“Ethnic conflict in Gogrial County [Northern Nahr El Ghazal] limited access to land this season,” it said, adding that the disarmament process conducted by the southern Sudanese government earlier this year in Diror, Pulchol and Nyirol counties had left households more vulnerable to cattle raiding by their armed neighbours in Pibor County.
The situation was equally precarious in Zeraf Island.
The fighting in Malakal started on 28 November between Sudanese government forces and soldiers of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), and lasted two days, inflicting heavy casualties, according to aid workers in the town.
On Monday, the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said the situation was returning to normal. Joint patrols by UN military observers, UN civilian police, local police, Sudanese armed forces and the SPLA were continuing.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan described the clashes as a serious violation of the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement that ended a 21-year civil war in southern Sudan.
FEWS Net said increasing civil insecurity caused by organised armed groups in Juba County was also a concern. “Although the situation has not reached critical levels, attacks and killings continue, especially in villages and along roads heading to Juba town,” it noted. “Civil insecurity is severely limiting movement and the trade of goods and may have affected agricultural activities during the September to December cropping period in this area.”
The suspension of talks on 30 November between the Ugandan government and the Sudan-based rebel Lord’s Resistance Army had also raised the risk of further insecurity in the greenbelt and hills and mountain zones, where the insurgents have been active, it added.
(IRIN)