A young girl is screened for malnutrition at Nyong PHCU (Primary Health Care Unit) nutrition site in Torit, South Sudan. (Photo: WFP South Sudan).

The South Sudan pound has depreciated by 70 percent against the US dollar between January and July 2024 pushing prices to record high and leaving more than 7 million people without enough food, thousands of whom risk starvation, the UN humanitarian agency said.

UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the country faces a severe humanitarian crisis driven by different shocks and triggers, such as severe food insecurity, flooding, unprecedented inflation, disease outbreaks, intercommunal violence, and spillover of the Sudan crisis.

“An estimated 7.1 million people2 were facing severe food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above) as of July, reflecting a 21 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2023,” OCHA said in its July Humanitarian Snapshot.

The agency indicates that about 79,000 people are also at risk of starvation (IPC Phase 5/Catastrophe) in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area and Aweil East County in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State.

OCHA stated that 300,000 people have been affected by flashfloods across the country by the end of July due to heavy rains as well as the increased release of water from Lake Victoria which have filled the Nile River and spilled over to settlements.

It further revealed that the South Sudanese pound (SSP) depreciated by over 70 per cent between January and July, making basic commodities unaffordable to many people.

“Since July 2023, the price of 3.5 kg sorghum has increased by 256 per cent from 3,000 SSP to 10,700 SSP,” OCHA said.

South Sudan has been experiencing catastrophic inflation after the Sudan war resulted in significant damage to facilities transporting its crude oil to the Red Sea, leaving the national currency weakened against the US dollar.

Civil servants and members of the organized forces have not been paid for nearly 10 months and the government struggling to meets its expenditures.

As of August 31, 2024, one US dollar trades at an average of 2,993 South Sudan pounds from the Bank of South Sudan, and at more than 5,000SSP at the parallel market.