The United Nations World Food Program announced on Tuesday that, due to lack of funding, it will not be able to help a third of the population of South Sudan, 7.7 million people, in a situation of hunger.
“We are very concerned about the impact of the cuts in the financing of the funds on children, women and men who will not have enough to eat during the lean season,” explained the director of the WFP in the country, Adeyinka Badejo, quoted in a WFP release. agency.
The lack of funding comes at a time when 60% of the population of this African country suffers from food insecurity serious due to droughts, internal conflicts and the increase in prices caused by the war in Ukraine.
Before deciding to cut aid, which affected 178,000 students who received food at school, a vital place to ensure at least one meal, this organization reduced the amounts of food made available during 2021.
The WFP warned that, without the 426 million dollars (about 408 million euros), already requested to meet the needs of 6 million people, “mortality, malnutrition, stunting and disease will increase dramatically”.
The WFP had already said on Tuesday that it needs 408 million euros in the next six months to avoid a famine in South Sudan, warned the country’s national director of the organization.
“We are already in crisis, but we need to resume the distribution of aid in the areas where we were forced to suspend it, to prevent people from going hungry, and for that we need 426 million dollars. [408 milhões de euros] in the next six months,” said Adeyinka Badejo, quoted by the France-Presse news agency (AFP).
The youngest country in the world, South Sudan has been experiencing chronic instability since its independence from Sudanin 2011.
Between 2013 and 2018, a bloody civil war broke out between political enemies Riek Machar and Salva Kiir, leaving almost 400,000 dead and millions displaced.
A peace deal signed in 2018 led to the division of power into a national unity government that was sworn in in February 2020, with Kiir as president and Machar as vice president.
However, many of the provisions remain largely unimplemented, mainly due to persistent tension between the two.
Source: Observadora
