UN Food Program, sounds the alarm. More than 70% of the population in the world’s youngest country – it became independent from neighboring Sudan only in 2011 – will face hunger this year. Endless conflicts, climate catastrophes or even inflation, the country will experience “its worst food crisis”, the UN agency warned in a press release.
The World Food Program (WFP) does not hide its concerns. With the world’s eyes on Ukraine, South Sudan is overwhelmed by a hitherto unnoticed food crisis that will affect seven out of ten South Sudanese in the coming months, warns WFP. More than 8.3 million people will experience “extreme hunger in the coming months,” the UN agency said.
Already an alarming food insecurity. The country was already facing alarming food security, after years of a civil war that displaced more than four million people by 2018. This situation has worsened for two years, especially by record-breaking floods followed by periods of severe drought, and recurring political ethnic violence.
And ten days ago, the UN warned of “a real risk of a return to conflict” between the two enemy brothers, President Salva Kiir and his Vice President Riek Machar, after clashes between their factions that have claimed more than 400 civilian casualties in recent months.
A “worrying” scale “The extent and seriousness of this crisis is worrying”, assures the UN. Its number two in the country, Adeyinka Badijo, says that now “people have nothing left to eat.” Thousands of South Sudanese can therefore “die of hunger if they do not receive food aid,” warns WFP.
►Also read: A wave of violence between municipalities on the border between Sudan and South Sudan
