Students from the University of Bahr el Ghazal protest lack of food. (Courtesy).

Students from the University of Bahr el Ghazal took to the streets in Wau town on Monday morning to protest the lack of food at the main campus.

The students marched in the streets and cried out that they have been without the university feeding for nearly a month.

Some of the students held placards with writings such as “No life without food” and “No Food no Work.” They aim to draw the attention of the authorities to their demand.

According to them, they had spent more than three weeks without food and sometimes lack of water.

Speaking to an Eye Radio stringer in Wau town, the students explained why they had to protest.

“We are protesting here today, because we spent about three weeks without food. So, we went out to protest because we went days without any meal,” said one student.

“We have students from coming from far away in Equatoria, Bahr El Ghazal and Upper Nile. So, we ask the government to give us food even if it is today’s meal. We have three weeks without any food, we are hungry and we just want to eat, we don’t want anything else.”

“We have spent three weeks without any food. So, we have students from our neighboring countries here, there are Sudanese students, they don’t have parents here, now if are just three weeks without food who are we?”

““Without food, no lectures. You cannot even understand anything if you are there in the class, and even a lecturer will say why are you like this, but he doesn’t know you are hungry. He satisfied in his own house or wherever,” said one of the students.

“He is here to say these students have nothing in their minds and here we have problem in our stomach.”

On his part, the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dr. Atem Deng supported the move by the students, saying it is their right to demand for food.

Dr. Deng said he has spoken with Minister of Higher Education Gabriel Changson Chang on the issue, but there haven’t been tangible results.

“I went to Juba to see the issue of food of student and I went and met with the Minister of High Education, and the Minister wrote to the ministry of finance and there was approval for the three universities in South Sudan.”

In response to the students demands, the Acting Governor of Western Bahr El Ghazal promised to provide food for the students using money from the state treasury.

Zakaria Joseph Garang said that he is in contact with the national government to find an urgent solution to the food crisis.

“So the responsibility of the university is the responsibility of Juba, but we intervene to help the situation here. Our children cannot die while we are present,” he said.

“At a time when I am talking to you, I sent the mayor to bring you food, and he is now working on it to bring sacks of beans to you here.”

“Secondly, we are working on providing food for you in the coming days as a state, and this is our help for you, and we are still communicating with Juba in order to provide your cheques and money, so that there will be permanent food for the university.”