Flooded areas around Pibor in 2019 | Credit | MSF

The economic cluster chaired by Vice President Wani Igga has approved more than two billion pounds meant to mitigate flood and drought impact on livestock in the country.

The Minister of Environment and Forestry Josephine Napwon revealed this to reporters following a meeting yesterday.

This came after the Minister of Livestock and Fisheries presented a report to the cluster yesterday.

Minister Napwon says the money will be used to buy necessary equipment and medicine to rescue flood-affected animals.

“According to the assessment most of the livestock in the country has been affected by drought and floods. this money can help the ministry to pay for necessary equipment and supply as medicine and the rest so that it helps to rescue the animals.”

In March last year UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, says nearly 800,000 livestock are thought to have perished.

This, it said, has decimated the subsistence farming that most communities depend upon to survive, and substantially worsened food insecurity across the country.

According to the UN agency, thirty-three out of 79 counties are badly affected by the flood waters, which have not significantly subsided since the last wet season.

The impacts it said, were especially harsh in Jonglei, Unity, and Upper Nile states.