Urgent funding required to save millions from starvation: UN
July 3, 2022 (JUBA) – Life-saving humanitarian operations in South Sudan have been either suspended, reduced or will be terminated if the funding situation remains as it is, the United Nations relief agency (OCHA) warned.
Current estimates, OCHA said in a statement issued on Monday, indicate that at least U.S$400 million are urgently required to provide minimum humanitarian services to alleviate people’s immediate needs.
If not addressed, these funding gaps will leave millions of the most vulnerable people at risk of losing access to vital humanitarian assistance and protection, it stated.
“The humanitarian context in South Sudan is daunting and is the worst that it has ever been. Everything including protection of women and girls, food, nutrition, and shelter, is needed. There are over two million people displaced in South Sudan, and absence of funding means that those in camps risk to be left in critical need of water, sanitation and hygiene, and health services,” said Sara Beysolow Nyanti, the Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan.
She added, “The lack of safety and security will further deepen these risks. The resources have dwindled, but lives should not”.
In South Sudan, about 8.9 million of the population are estimated to need significant humanitarian assistance and protection in 2022.
The Humanitarian Response Plan requests US$1.7 billion to target 6.8 million people with life-saving assistance and protection services. Currently, the humanitarian response plan is reportedly funded only at 27%, almost 14% of which was funded by the OCHA-managed Pooled Funds Central Emergency Response Fund and South Sudan Humanitarian Fund.
“With such funding gaps, vulnerable suffer more and humanitarian partners are forced to prioritize, making heart-wrenching choices between severe needs. We cannot give up because the cost of inaction is too high, and people in need cannot afford to pay this price,” said Nyanti.
She further added, “We need urgent funds, and are appealing to the world to remember the most vulnerable in South Sudan”.
Last month, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it is cutting nearly a third of the people it had planned to provide food aid to in South Sudan this year because of lack of funds, placing at least 1.7 million people at risk of starvation.
(ST)