Hunger strikes Pochalla county in Jonglei
November 19, 2013 (JUBA) – Around 6,520 households are reported to have been affected by food shortages in Pochalla, according to a report conducted by members of parliament representing Pochalla county in the Jonglei state legislative assembly on Monday.
“It’s the first time in Pochella to be affected by hunger”, explained John Joseph Abulla, a MP in state assembly in Bor on Monday.
Abulla visited the area for two weeks with fellow MPs Ogato Cham and Akello Cham to research the situation. The payams [districts] worst affected were Akyoi with 2,200 households affected, Adongo with 2,540 and Burator with 1,780.
Medical services are insufficient to serve the malnourished population, the MPs said. Markets in the county are very low on food as the county is completely cut off from the rest of the state, including the state capital Bor due to the poor state of the roads after the heavy rains.
Around 2,350 houses were destroyed in the floods in recent months, says the report which the MPs say has been handed to the United Nations to inform their humanitarian response.
“We met with the education officials and they briefed us that most of the schools were closed due to the hunger situation that made the families fled to Ethiopia with their children. Over 600 children left the schools”, said Abulla.
Pochalla is one of the most remote counties in Jonglei without any road connections within its payams and with the rest of the state’s counties, making it impossible to be reached by land.
The MPs had to travel by air to reach the area to conduct the assessment.
Most of the schools in Pochalla operate under trees and some in temporary houses built with local materials. The state and central government pledged to build secondary schools in the county earlier this year but they are yet to be established.
(ST)