FAO warns of major food crisis in South Sudan

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned of a major food and nutrition crisis in South Sudan.

The organization said up to seven million people, nearly two thirds of the total population, are at risk of food insecurity in the crisis-hit African country, from which 3.7 million are already facing acute or emergency levels of food insecurity.

Pointing to the deteriorating situation in South Sudan, FAO representative Sue Lautze said, “Markets have collapsed, infrastructure is damaged, foreign traders have fled, commodity supply corridors have been disrupted by violence, and rural populations are unable to bring their crops, livestock and fish to market for sale.”

Dominique Burgeon, Director of FAO’s Emergency and Rehabilitation Division, who visited the country recently, also said farmers need urgent assistance to access vital agricultural inputs at a time when prices of staple crops soar and basic commodities run out.

Earlier on Wednesday, FAO appealed for USD 77 million for critical food security and livelihood support for the country’s crisis-affected population. According to reports, the agency has so far received less than six percent (only 4.25 million) of its demand to implement the emergency response plan in the country.

Conflict erupted in South Sudan on 15 December, 2013, when South Sudanese President Salva Kiir accused his sacked deputy, Riek Machar, of attempting to stage a coup.

The conflict soon turned into an all-out war between the army and defectors, with the violence taking on an ethnic dimension that pitted the president’s Dinka tribe against Machar’s Nuer ethnic group.

Some 870,000 people have reportedly fled their homes since the fighting broke out in the country.