Unity State

The National Bureau of Statistics and three UN agencies have declared famine in the country, especially in the former Unity State.

A formal famine declaration means that people have already started dying of hunger.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Program, 100,000 people are facing starvation there.

The agencies attribute the condition to “war and a collapsing economy”. Three years of conflict have reportedly severely undermined crop production and rural livelihoods.

“Famine has become a tragic reality in parts of South Sudan and our worst fears have been realized. Many families have exhausted every means they have to survive,” said FAO Representative in South Sudan Serge Tissot in a statement issued on Monday.

“The people are predominantly farmers and war has disrupted agriculture. They’ve lost their livestock, even their farming tools. For months there has been a total reliance on whatever plants they can find and fish they can catch.”

If sustained and adequate assistance is delivered urgently, they say, the hunger situation can be improved in the coming months and further suffering mitigated.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) update released today by the government, the three agencies and other humanitarian partners, 4.9 million people – more than 40 percent of South Sudan’s population – are in need of urgent food, agriculture and nutrition assistance.

“The convergence of evidence shows that the long-term effects of the conflict coupled with high food prices, economic crisis, low agriculture production and depleted livelihood option are all contributing to the deterioration of food security situation,” Isaiah Chol Aruai, Chairperson of National Bureau of Statistic, told the media this morning.

The total number of food insecure people is expected to rise to 5.5 million at the height of the lean season in July if nothing is done to curb the severity and spread of the food crisis.

They said unimpeded humanitarian access to everyone facing famine, or at risk of famine, is urgently needed to reverse the escalating catastrophe.

Further spread of famine can only be prevented if humanitarian assistance is scaled up and reaches the most vulnerable, they added.