The United Nations and humanitarian partner organizations have today launched the 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) for South Sudan, targeting 6 million children, women, and men with the most acute needs. In the forthcoming year, 9 million people in the country - a slight decrease from 2023 - are projected to be in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. Among those requiring humanitarian aid will be 4.9 million children.
At the release of the 2024 plan, the acting UN Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan, Marie-Helene Verney, reiterated the commitment of the humanitarian community to support people’s priorities and needs with life-saving assistance while working towards resilience and livelihoods.
“We will work to support people’s progress to being self-reliant so that they no longer have to depend on humanitarian assistance. Sadly, for most people, we expect multiple shocks, including the negative impact of climate change, which will continue to drive acute needs next year,” Verney said.
The humanitarian response in South Sudan will require US$1.8 billion to provide humanitarian aid to the people targeted. UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) plan to target people with shock-driven needs, requiring life-saving assistance, such as those impacted by negative climate effects, conflict, and disease outbreaks.
“With less funding in 2024, we will prioritize assistance to support communities with the most acute needs. The reality is that some people will experience needs that humanitarians will not be able to respond to, and it is important that they have access to state-provided basic services,” Verney stressed.
According to the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan, in some areas, where conflict and violence lessened, and agricultural production increased, people’s needs have decreased in 2023. However, the majority of people across the country remain in challenging circumstances.
According to the 2023 Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) analysis conducted in September-October, a total of 5.83 million people are currently facing crisis (IPC Phase 3) or worse levels of hunger, a figure expected to increase to over 7 million by April 2024.
An estimated 7.1 million people will face food insecurity during the lean season from April to July 2024. According to the latest IPC analysis, 1.6 million children are at risk of malnutrition, of which 480,000 are at risk of severe acute malnutrition (SAM).
South Sudan is also one of the countries badly affected by climate change. Dry spell and flooding contribute to people’s food insecurity situation. In addition, South Sudan’s women and girls remain at high risk of gender-based violence (GBV).
The Sudan crisis that erupted on April 15 this year also increased the extent of vulnerable people that require assistance. The sustained influx of South Sudanese returnees from Sudan and Ethiopia, many of whom arrive with no assets and extremely limited coping capacity, continues to exert heavy pressure on the host communities to share scarce resources.
As of November 28, over 406,000 returnees and refugees from Sudan and at least 91,000 returnees from Ethiopia have fled to South Sudan due to deteriorating security conditions in their host countries. Almost all of those who have crossed the border to Sudan since fighting broke out there in mid-April are South Sudanese, and they are returning to a country already facing severe humanitarian needs.
In addition to South Sudanese returnees, there are also some 50,000 Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers arriving who have fled the war in Sudan. One out of four of all the people who have fled the Sudan conflict are being hosted now in South Sudan. The impact of the crisis is felt on the South Sudanese economy, further stretching people’s coping capacities as market prices increase.
Meanwhile, people in South Sudan suffer the consequences of development deficit characterized by chronic poverty, lack of livelihoods and limited access to basic social services.
“The humanitarian community supports the government in its leadership role of responding to people’s needs and to provide basic social services to its citizens,” said Verney.
Years of conflict have already caused one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises in South Sudan. Soaring rates of severe malnutrition, acute hunger, and deteriorating health conditions are threatening the lives and well-being of millions of people in the country, with the situation aggravated by weather extremes related to the climate crisis.
“As we continue to operate on the frontlines in highly dangerous conditions to help people move from surviving to thriving, we need attacks on civilians and humanitarians to stop,” the Humanitarian Coordinator added.
Before the conflict erupted in Sudan, at least 10 million people in South Sudan needed humanitarian assistance in 2023. Among those in need were 5 million children.
With 4.2 million people forcibly displaced, South Sudan has the highest proportion - 34 percent - of its population displaced of any country in Africa. While 2 million people are internally displaced, more than 2.2 million people have fled to neighboring countries. Most of them are now in Uganda, which hosts 1 million South Sudanese refugees.
Humanitarian operations in South Sudan are severely underfunded. As of November 28, the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for South Sudan, which requires $2.1 billion to support 7.4 million people, is only 48 percent funded.
Further information
Full text: South Sudan: Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2024, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), published November 28, 2023
https://reliefweb.int/attachments/a31b662f-3a02-4790-a09b-39adce6a74bc/South_Sudan_HNRP_2024.pdf
Full text: South Sudan: Food Security Outlook Update, October 2023–May 2024, FEWS NET, published November 28, 2023
https://reliefweb.int/attachments/41606207-ef53-4b76-9d87-7c3e25670171/ss-fso-2023-11-1701143012.pdf