Drought, hunger add to South Sudan woes

South Sudan First Vice President Taban Deng Gai speaks during press briefings at Intercontinental Hotel on August 17, 2016. Drought has stricken South Sudan. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • For others, when the August rains came, it was too much, with sudden massive downpours, causing flooding and ruining crops.
  • The World Food Programme warns that as many as 4.8 million people — about 40 per cent of the country’s population — are going hungry.

JUBA

A serious food crisis in the north of South Sudan is reaching critical levels, as a biting drought across east Africa serves up more woes for the troubled country.

In Northern Bahr Al Gazal, it is not the incessant cycles of violence wreaking havoc elsewhere in the country that concerns locals most, but lack of rain.

The country has been at war from 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of planning to overthrow him.

At a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders in Aweil Town, Lucia Adeng holds her emaciated three-year-old son Wek Wol Wek, his breathing shallow and rapid.

“It’s not always a total lack of food, but there is definitely a shortage. Sometimes we have food at home, and sometimes we don’t,” she says.

Several children like him lie in their mothers’ arms, eyes downcast, as they are poked and prodded by doctors. The clinic records about 60 cases of malnutrition a week.

Out in the fields, Tong Deng, a farmer, looks miserably at his damaged sorghum field.

For others, when the August rains came, it was too much, with sudden massive downpours, causing flooding and ruining crops.

“Our harvest has been low because during the planting period, the hunger situation was severe and we were not able to cultivate much land,” Deng says.

“What we cultivated suffered a dry spell which didn’t allow a good germination, and later the few crops were affected by the sorghum midge.”

At the local market, several stalls are closed and offerings are meagre.

The World Food Programme warns that as many as 4.8 million people — about 40 per cent of the country’s population — are going hungry.

The Famine Early Warning System Network (Fews Net) last month said some households were at catastrophic famine level five. Others were going for days without a meal.

With roads from Sudan blocked to trade goods, and those to Uganda fraught with danger due to clashes, the inflation in prices of certain cereals is as much as 1,000 per cent in some states.

A depreciation of the South Sudanese pound has also hit hard.

The Food and Agricultural Organisation says more than 70,000 people from the region have migrated to Sudan to escape the harsh conditions.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July 2011. Food insecurity has increased by 500 per cent since 2012.

The country descended into war over the political rivalry between Machar and Kiir in 2013, and a fragile peace deal signed in 2015 is in tatters, with fighting erupting again in July and a surge of violence in recent weeks.

The Pacific warming El Niño caused one of the worst droughts in decades in 2015 across eastern and southern Africa and the 2016 rainy season has been slow to start, meaning the crisis could drag on for several months.