MADRID, Nov 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United Nations warned this Thursday that severe food insecurity in South Sudan has reached its highest level, exceeding numbers recorded during the conflict, a situation exacerbated by climate change that has caused floods and droughts in recent months in Africa Country.
The agency has highlighted in a statement that around two-thirds of the population, representing approximately 7.8 million people, could face acute food insecurity between April and July 2023, including 1.4 million malnourished children, noting that some communities this could threaten famine if international humanitarian aid is not increased.
For example, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Program (WFP) have stated that the percentage of people most food insecure and malnourished exceeds what was seen in 2013 and 2016 attribute them to the combined effects of conflict, poor macroeconomic conditions, extreme weather events, and rising food and fuel costs.
“We’ve been in hunger prevention mode all year round, preventing the worst outcomes, but that’s not enough,” said WFP South Sudan director Makena Walker, who explained that the country was “at the forefront of the climate crisis.” every day families are losing their homes, livestock, fields and hope to extreme weather,” he said.
“Without food-level humanitarian assistance, millions more will find themselves in an increasingly difficult situation, unable to meet the most basic food needs of their families,” he stressed, a line that FAO representative in the country Meshack Malo said , who has argued that “livelihood support is necessary to facilitate South Sudan’s resilience at the food production level”.
Malo has stated that “the potential is there as 840,000 tons of grain were produced in 2021 in a difficult year due to climate change, flooding, conflict and other factors”. “Given the current grain deficit of 541,000 tons, urgent investment in rural areas is needed to increase production and the level of self-sufficiency,” he defended.
For his part, UNICEF representative in South Sudan, Jesper Moller, stressed that “in the last three years, an increasing number of people” in the country have been dramatically affected by flooding, stating that “among those affected, there is a growing number of malnourished or food-insecure children that the international community cannot ignore.
“To effectively protect children from the effects of climate change, we need to ensure that we reach the most vulnerable children with an essential package of multisectoral interventions at the social service level,” he argued.
Finally, the UN humanitarian coordinator in the country, Sara Beysolow Nyanti, has argued that the report is “key to formulating humanitarian response plans to help meet the needs of the population in the country”. “These figures show that the people of South Sudan need help more than ever. Securing pledges from donors by 2023 is crucial to avoid worsening the humanitarian situation in the country,” he concluded.