Famine hits South Sudan as 100000 face starvation

The U.N. children’s agency UNICEF on Tuesday said almost 1.4 million children were at “imminent” risk of death in famines in South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria.

South Sudan’s president says his government will ensure “unimpeded access” for all aid organizations, a day after starvation was declared in part of the country. South Sudanese government officials have blocked or placed constraints on the delivery of food aid to areas of the country, according to a United Nations official who insisted on anonymity because of lack of authorization to speak to the media.

In December 2016, President Kiir announced the national dialogue which he said will be bottom-top approach to address local grievances and political issues in South Sudan. UNICEF representative Jeremy Hopkins said they estimate over one million children are acutely malnourished in South Sudan.

Aid work in South Sudan has gotten more and more risky and hard. South Sudan has been riled with conflict for decades.

The starvation in South Sudan was foreseen. “It’s the newest country in the world and it’s fought for a long to get its independence”.

This is caused by prolonged conflict, ongoing violence and sexual atrocities which has displaced millions, and deteriorating drought which is threatening lives, and risks destabilising the region.

The country, which is the newest nation on earth, has also been devastated by three years of civil war.

In January, MSF teams of community health workers encountered very high levels of malnutrition amongst children in the areas of Dablual and Mirniyal in northern Mayendit country. Millions died in the conflicts.

But in 1983, Khartoum reneged on the accords, unleashing another war between north and south.

“It underscores the complete failure by government, opposition forces, and global actors to end the cycle of abuse”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement Tuesday.

During the second Sudanese civil war, Machar, an ethnic Nuer, joined the southern rebel SPLA, which was up to then mainly made up of Kiir’s Dinka tribe. This one is a man-made catastrophe, caused by war and economic collapse, the United Nations says. John Birchenough from the Christian charity, CAFOD recently returned from South Sudan and spoke with Premier about the situation there.

Years of drought, that have also affected Kenya and Ethiopia, have hit harvests and conflict has made it extremely hard for agencies to operate and access communities in the south of the country. The fighting broke out in December 2013 and efforts to forge a peace deal collapsed a year ago.