Diplomatic and humanitarian officials meet GPAA Chief Administratori Gola Boyoi in Pibor. Sept 27, 2024. (Photo: GPAA Chief's Administrator's Office).

The government of Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) received humanitarian actors in Pibor town who travelled to the area on Friday to assess the dire humanitarian situation caused by flooding there.

A statement from the Chief Administrator’s official Facebook page said that the delegation including the Canadian ambassador to South Sudan and a team from UN World Food Program, assessed the area which is hit by hunger and floods.

The delegation reportedly held meeting with the administrative government and assessed the ongoing response activities by donors that support critical essential needs.

Pibor Information Minister Oleyo Akuer said the humanitarian actors witnesses the devastating impact of floods and the suffering of the local populations.

Oleyo stated that the team also evaluated whether other previously delivered humanitarian assistance reached the vulnerable population.

According to him, the visitors have promised reinstating school feeding program and urged some communities to send their children to school.

“They came to assess the humanitarian situation and discussed a lot about the assistance which has been provided to the local people, and to evaluate if the distributed food aid has reached to the local and vulnerable people or it has not,” he said in an interview with Eye Radio.

“They saw flooding situation in Pochalla and Akilo Payam which have been submerged recently. They observed situation of schools feeding program in particular and say they are going to support some schools in term of feeding.”

In August 2024, the GPAA government said in a report that more than 40 people died of likely starvation in the hunger-hit region in only two months.

The administrative government previously said hunger has affected the entire territory where supply routes from Juba, Eastern Equatoria and neighboring Ethiopia are hardly accessible amid a limited humanitarian response.