More than seven million people in South Sudan will suffer acute food insecurity over the coming few months – and efforts need to be focused on stopping a potential famine, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has said.
“This coming lean season 7.24 million will suffer from severe food insecurity – including 1.4 million children and young mothers who will suffer from malnutrition, and that is the situation we are responding to,” the WFP’s Matthew Hollingworth told reporters in the capital, Juba.
“As such, we need to act and focus all our resources and energy on it in order to mitigate and stop this potential catastrophic food insecurity – to stop potential famine,” he said.
The warning came as the US government, through its envoy in Juba, announced that it was contributing $95m (£70m) in additional humanitarian assistance for those affected by ongoing political conflict and extreme food insecurity.
A unity government was formed in February last year, ending a six-year brutal civil war – but insecurity is still rife across the fertile country.
This has prevented many farmers, who were forced to flee their homes, from planting or harvesting crops, causing food shortages nationwide.
Meanwhile, South Sudan has lifted a lockdown it imposed in early February to help contain rising cases of Covid-19, which will allow non-essential businesses to reopen.
The pandemic has further hampered economic recovery following the civil war.
