Aid agencies warn of looming famine in S. Sudan next year
October 6, 2014 (JUBA) – Leading aid agencies operating in South Sudan have warned that parts of the young nation, already facing one of the world’s worse food crises, could experience famine early next year if the country’s ongoing conflict is not urgently resolved.
The number of people facing dangerous levels of hunger will reportedly to increase by one million between January and March next year.
In a report launched on Monday, entitled From Crisis to Catastrophe, aid agencies called for neighbouring governments and the wider international community to redouble diplomatic efforts to put real pressure on parties to the conflict to end the fighting, including an arms embargo.
“So far the international community’s ‘softly-softly’ approach to the peace talks has failed to secure a meaningful ceasefire. There needs to be an increase in both the quantity and quality of the aid effort,” partly reads the report.
Tariq Reibl, head of Oxfam’s programme in South Sudan, said: “If famine comes to South Sudan it will come through the barrel of a gun. This is a man-made crisis not one caused by the vagaries of the weather and though humanitarian aid is vital it cannot fix a political problem”.
“The international community is much better at saving lives than it is at helping solve the political problems that put lives in peril. Nine months of the softly-softly approach to peace negotiations has failed,” added Reibl.
He mainly appealed to the international community to help both sides end the fighting through “bold” diplomatic efforts if they really wanted to avert famine in the country.
The group of 10 relief organisations expressed fears that recent improvements will be wiped if the number of severely hungry people rises by one million as expected in first three months of 2015.
Aid agencies said that a mixture of significant aid, a lull in the fighting due to the wet season and the ability of the South Sudanese to cope with hardship has managed to stave off famine for the moment.
However, they warned that with the rainy season now over, an upsurge in fighting was likely, setting back any gains made in the last few months and potentially pushing areas into famine by next March.
Since the current round of conflict began in South Sudan in mid-December last year, the country has been pushed to the brink of disaster. However, international aid effort has saved thousands of lives, much of it generously funded by the US, the UK and the EU who have provided 60 per cent of the total funding.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has opened its compounds to around 100,000 civilians, saving them from ethnic violence, and peace negotiations led by South Sudan’s neighbours have not come any closer to brokering a peace deal.
The head of CARE in South Sudan, Aimee Ansari, said: “South Sudan only just missed falling into famine this year. Partly this was due to the aid effort but much of it is due to the strength, resilience and generosity of the South Sudanese people themselves”.
“But they are now at the end of their tether. You can only sell all your livestock once. Eating seeds meant for planning keeps the gnawing hunger away for the moment, but it is mortgaging the future to meet the desperate needs of the present. The people of South Sudan did what they could to survive this year – but that means they will be vulnerable next year,” Ansari said.
“They need to see an end to the fighting so normal life can resume,” she added.
Many of the 1.4 million people displaced from their homes face an uncertain future.
The fighting has disrupted markets and pushed up food prices, while fishermen have been barred from rivers and cattle herders have had their cattle stolen or been forced to sell them off cheaply.
CALLS FOR HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
Meanwhile, aid agencies called for donor governments to fully support the UN’s appeals for humanitarian work in South Sudan and the refugee crisis in neighbouring countries. They also said that the quality of aid needs to be improved and should be delivered where people are rather than where it is easier to reach.
“It needs to build on the way people cope with the crisis and to enable them to face any future crisis better prepared,” agencies have appealed.
The groups also called on South Sudan’s government, the opposition and other armed groups to immediately stop fighting and work towards a long-term, sustainable peace deal.
“All their forces need to stop attacks against civilians, end the use of child soldiers and allow humanitarian workers safe access to people needing their help,” the aid group urged.
(ST)