UN says food aid demand in Southern Sudan drop by 19 pct
April 12, 2007 (NAIROBI) — The United Nations agencies said on Thursday the demand for food aid in South Sudan has dropped by 19 percent since the signing of a landmark peace deal, which ended the civil war in the vast region.
In a statement, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said a recent food needs assessment in Southern Sudan has indicated that the food needs have dropped due to increased food production in the South following the end of the 21- year war in the region.
The OCHA said while meningitis and acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) have killed over 700 people in the vast region since the beginning of the year, the food security situation is slowly improving.
“Food aid planned for 2007 will be 108,000 metric tons, down by 19 percent compared to 133,000 metric tons in 2006. But the real change is not so much about tonnage, but rather about how food is used,” said World Food Program (WFP) Coordinator Justin Bagirishya.
“The global picture shows an increase in Southern Sudan’s food production, from 805,000 metric tons in 2005 to 838,000 metric tons in 2006, marking a 4 percent improvement. For a territory that just came out of two decades of war, this is not bad,” Bagirishya said.
The improvement, he said, is in good part due to the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees.
“In addition, the improvement in the road network allows for much better transport and trade, which has led to the opening of new markets,” said Eliane Duthoit, Head of OCHA in Juba, the capital.
South Sudan is largely a rich agricultural zone but the 21-year war scared locals, who fled in fear of their lives at the height of the war between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the northern Khartoum government over power and wealth sharing.
The UN agencies said with more people resettling and engaging into production, more and more communities are becoming self- sufficient, and food distribution has to be reduced.
In 2007, for the first time since the end of the war, Bagirishya said WFP would cease airdrops, whereby food aid was dropped by air to highly vulnerable communities that were hard to reach. During the war, airdrops accounted for 80 percent of food aid.
“No food will be provided for free in 2007, except to children under five, the elderly, those affected by HIV/AIDS, and other chronically food insecure groups who are unable to work, as well as returnees during the first three months after their arrival,” OCHA said.
WFP said one of its main programs in 2007 would be “food for education” where food is provided to schoolchildren in school canteens, with the double aim of supporting their nutrition, and encouraging school attendance.
“We reached 130,000 children last year. This year we are planning to reach at least 450,000,” said Bagirishya.
In addition, through programs named “food for work” and “food for recovery,” he said WFP would provide food to over 720,000 people in Southern Sudan in exchange for community-based work, such as building schools and roads, and constructing latrines.
This, he said, has so far seen 1,800 km of roads completed in Southern Sudan, over a target of 3,000 km to be achieved by the end of 2007, which will connect Southern Sudan to the north, as well as to Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda.
“These developments show that we are slowly but gradually moving from humanitarian action to recovery, and to development,” said Duthoit, Head of OCHA in Juba.
“In our planning however, there is always a contingency stock. If peace and stability were to be disrupted, obviously our needs would be much higher than planned,” she added.
Following the landmark peace deal, which was signed in 2005, the people of Southern Sudan are experiencing peace for the first time in over two decades.
Although stability remains precarious in some areas, the Government with the support of the international community has made significant steps to alleviate human suffering, while proceeding towards development.
A food security alert issued by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS Net) said while the situation had improved in northern parts of southern Sudan, it was likely to deteriorate as the April/May to August hunger season progresses.
This, the report said, would particularly affect poor and recently resettled households in areas affected by civil insecurity, cattle raiding and where population resettlement is significant.
(Xinhua)