9.4m S. Sudanese will require aid, protection in 2023: UN
November 27, 2022 (JUBA) – An estimated 9.4 million people or 76% South Sudan’s population will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2023, the United Nations said.
This, it said, presents an increase of half a million people when compared to 2022.
“Something has to change in South Sudan because the number of people in need continues to rise every year and the resources continue to decrease,” said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan, Sara Beysolow Nyanti.
The top UN humanitarian official said the deteriorating humanitarian conditions are worsened by endemic violence, conflict, access constraints, operational interference, public health challenges and climatic shocks such as flooding and localized drought.
According to Nyanti, the sub-national violence across the country has led to displacement, limitation of people’s access to critical humanitarian services and livelihoods, and disruption of humanitarian operations.
The protracted displacement, she said, affects more than 2.2 million people, many of whom have been unable to return to their homes for years and face major risks, including family separation and trauma.
According to the UN, severe food insecurity will affect an estimated 8 million people, or 64 per cent of the total population, by the peak of the lean season between April and July in 2023. In conflict- and flood-affected areas, people’s access to food and income sources is severely hampered, due to displacement to new locations, disruption of delivery of food assistance and trade flows. In some places, people’s daily rations have been reduced due to funding.
“Physical violence, rape and other forms of gender-based violence will be a reality some 2.8 million people will face in 2023,” added Nyanti.
Some 3.7 million children, adolescents and caregivers continue to be at risk of recruitment into local armed groups and other forms of abuse, including abduction and possible trafficking, and will need life-saving child protection services in 2023.
Meanwhile, the Humanitarian Coordinator appealed to the government for leadership in increasing investments in peace and development, because only gains in these two areas will reduce humanitarian needs.
“Pivoting to development requires a two-pronged approach of investing more in development and peace but also saving the lives of those on the brink. Peace is a prerequisite because we cannot reach those in humanitarian need or implement the development vision without peace,” she stressed.
Since the beginning of 2022, nine humanitarian workers were killed in the line of duty in South Sudan. Across the country, aid workers – mostly national humanitarian workers – are affected by the impact of armed violence, bureaucratic impediments and targeted violence.
(ST)