By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
POCHALLA, Sudan — The Southern Sudanese people are now facing famine following low rainfall and a surge in tribal conflicts.
An increasing number of people in Southern Sudan cannot find enough to eat or adequate pasture and water for their livestock raising fears of conflict between communities over grazing lands. Adding to the problem, an increase in tribal fighting has driven many families away from their homes and sparse crops, leaving them even more vulnerable.
U.N. officials earlier this year said at least 1.2 million people in the underdeveloped region could be left without enough food after a poor start to the rainy season.
“Here the crisis is going to hit very hard, we’re just seeing the beginning of it at the moment,” UNICEF’s deputy executive director Hilde Johnson told journalists on a visit to the south’s oil-producing Jonglei state. “If we are not able to handle the situation well … we can expect very, very significant levels (of hunger) which can border on the red flag emergency which becomes a famine,” said Johnson.
“Where there was peace, there was no rain and then where there were good rains, there was insecurity,” Kuol Manyang, governor of Jonglei State, said. His counterpart from Upper Nile State, Gutlauk Deng Garang, warned that hunger would force pastoralist cattle herders to move their animals, sharply increasing the likelihood of clashes with rival ethnic groups.
More than 2,000 people have died and about 350,000 have been displaced by violence across Southern Sudan since January, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The World Food Programme (WFP), which began airdropping food in the area on 4 November, estimates that 1.2 million people are already facing serious food insecurity in Southern Sudan.
For more information, please see:
IRIN – Increasing Hunger Could Fuel Conflict in South – 16 November 2009
New York Times- South Sudan Faces Famine Danger After Poor Rains – U.N. – 8 November 2009
Reuters – South Sudan Faces Famine Danger After Poor Rains – 8 November 2009
