The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has begun airdropping emergency food assistance to thousands of families in South Sudan's Upper Nile State, where conflict has surged since March, forcing tens of thousands from their homes and pushing some communities to the brink of famine. According to a recent UN report, South Sudan is one of the world’s top five hunger hotspots, where people face extreme hunger, starvation, and death.
For the first time in over four months, the distributions allow WFP to deliver life-saving food and nutrition assistance to over 40,000 people facing catastrophic hunger in the most remote parts of Nasir and Ulang counties, which are only accessible by air.
“The link between conflict and hunger is tragically clear in South Sudan, and we’ve seen this over the past few months in Upper Nile,” said Mary-Ellen McGroarty, WFP Country Director in South Sudan, in a statement on Monday.
“Without a major scale-up in assistance, the counties of Nasir and Ulang risk slipping into full-blown famine. We urgently need to get food to these families, and we are doing everything possible to reach those who need it most before the situation spirals.”
Since March, political instability and rising hostilities between armed groups have led to clashes in Upper Nile State, devastating lives and damaging essential services. This has forced many people, already grappling with displacement, disease, and food insecurity, to flee once more.
The sharp deterioration in the country's political and security situation threatens to undermine the peace progress made thus far and plunge the country back into war. Tensions have been heightened by internal conflict, particularly between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those aligned with Vice President Riek Machar.
Across Upper Nile, more than one million people are facing acute hunger, including over 32,000 women, children, and men experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger (IPC5), the highest level of food insecurity. The situation will only worsen unless urgent humanitarian action is swiftly taken to provide large-scale aid.
The number of people facing acute hunger has tripled since the flare-up of armed conflict in March, which triggered mass displacement, including across the border into Ethiopia. There, WFP is providing life-saving food aid to around 50,000 people who have fled Upper Nile in search of food and safety.
The UN agency aims to reach 470,000 people in Upper Nile and Northern Jonglei through the lean season, the hungriest time of year which runs through August. However, continued fighting, and logistical constraints have hindered access and a comprehensive response.
So far this year, WFP has only been able to reach 300,000 people in Upper Nile. The UN agency says that the main river routes into the state must be reopened urgently to provide sustained humanitarian support to hungry families.
According to the WFP, these routes are the most cost-effective way to deliver crucial assistance to large swathes of Upper Nile and Northern Jonglei, but they have been blocked by active fighting since mid-April. The organization has 1,500 tons of food ready to transport once the river routes are operational again.
“Where we have been able to consistently deliver, we’ve seen real progress,” McGroarty said.
“In the first half of this year, we pushed back catastrophic hunger in areas of Jonglei State through regular deliveries of food assistance, and we can do the same in Upper Nile. But if we can’t get the food to people, hunger will deepen and famine is a real and present threat.”
South Sudan is facing one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises and is looking at one of its worst humanitarian prospects since gaining independence in 2011. Some 9.3 million people — around half of whom are children — require humanitarian assistance.
A plummeting in global funding is worsening the already dire humanitarian situation in the country. Nationwide, 7.7 million people — 57 percent of the population — are facing crisis, emergency, or catastrophic levels of food insecurity. Among them, 83,000 people are experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger (IPC5), and around 2.4 million are facing emergency levels (IPC4).
An unprecedented 2.3 million children under the age of five are at risk of malnutrition. Of those children, more than 714,000 suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and require urgent medical attention.
Due to funding gaps, WFP has prioritized providing reduced rations to only the most vulnerable 2.5 million people — just 30 percent of those in acute need — in order to stretch limited resources. To continue life-saving operations through December, the UN agency urgently needs US$274 million.