Aid workers resume operation in southern Unity state: OCHA
December 2, 2015 (LEER) – The United Nation Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said aid workers resumed operations on Monday, assisting thousands of people living around southern Unity state in response to deliver urgent basic needs.
“They brought with them life-saving supplies, including survival kits, high energy biscuits and blankets, to deliver to people in need who have been cut-off from assistance since fighting resumed in October 2015,” reads a UN bulletin obtained by Sudan Tribune.
The latest fighting in Unity state is reportedly causing threats of hunger to those living in fear in the bush, with children said to be greatly at risk of being severely malnourish.
However, OCHA said around 40,000 people may be facing a catastrophe, a finding revealed by combined teams of specialists on food security and nutrition in Jaguar and Dablual in Mayiendit county.
The report says Bil in Guit and Buaw in Koch counties are also at risk of hunger as many people have not cultivated this year.
“The team confirmed that there are limited food sources in these areas, animals were looted, cultivation did not take place because of fighting during the planting season, and markets have been destroyed,” said OCHA.
Many of those displaced by conflicts are reportedly surviving on water lilies and fish, which are currently the main food sources. As the raining season approaches to an end, the aid agency has warned of full scale of hunger as the rivers and swamps could dry up by January next year.
The joint assessment teams, however, concluded that without food, livelihood assistance, nutrition and health services, the situation is likely to degenerate significantly in the first quarter of 2016.
Currently, most communities in South Sudan are reportedly facing hardships, with half of country’s population at high risk of famine in areas like Unity, Upper Nile and Jonglei states. The three regions were badly-hit by the mid December 2013 outbreak of conflict.
(ST)