Refugees in South Sudan face food crisis: UNHCR

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has warned that thousands of Sudanese refugees in neighboring South Sudan are facing insecurity and severe shortage of basic necessities.

UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told journalists in Geneva that about one-third of the refugee population was at risk in the conflict-torn country.

“It has been impossible to get food pre-positioned there because of the insecurity we have seen. And this now is starting to show itself in some very worrisome consequences: real shortages of food, growing rates of global and severe acute malnutrition. We are particularly worried about the impact this may have on people who, as they move – because if you move across from there toward Ethiopia, for example, the conditions are difficult, the route is difficult. It is likely that people arriving in Ethiopia, should they come there, will be in much worse state still,” Edwards said on Friday.

The UN refugee agency is helping to care for 130,000 refugees from Sudan’s troubled Blue Nile state. The refugees are living across the border in South Sudan, in camps in Maban county of Upper Nile state.

The refugee population includes children, pregnant and lactating women, elderly, the disabled and those who are chronically ill.

Maban county is not directly affected by the ongoing war in South Sudan. However, UN officials say insecurity and border restrictions along supply corridors have prevented the delivery of relief items since the beginning of the year.

Nearly 800,000 people in South Sudan have become internally displaced since fighting erupted in mid-December.