Clock ticking for starving children in Sudan
THIS was to be the first generation to grow up without war.
It was just two and a half years ago that 99% of South Sudanese voted for independence, ending decades of conflict and ushering in a new chapter as an autonomous nation. In the past few months, the unity and optimism that was so palpable in 2011 has all but vanished. What started as a political struggle between president Salva Kiir and his former vice-president, Riek Machar, has spiralled into widespread violence that has killed thousands and threatens to tear the fledgling country apart.
Despite a recent ceasefire, there are ongoing accusations of breaches of the truce, not helped by the lack of a mutually acceptable independent stabilisation force to monitor and police the agreement.
The scale and depth of the immediate needs are shocking: More than 870,000 people have fled their homes to escape fighting. An estimated 743,400 of them are displaced inside South Sudan. The majority do not have even basic services such as clean water, food, sanitation, shelter, and health care.
However, the ripple effects of the conflict are just as insidious. An estimated 3.7m people are now enduring acute or emergency levels of food insecurity, a number that will rise in the coming months if people are not able to return home and begin planting this month before the rains come. We have one month to ensure civilians are safe to return home and resume their lives because, as the UN has estimated, more than 7m people — or 85% of the population — are at risk. An entire generation of South Sudan’s children — the future of this young country — could be condemned to a lifetime of poverty, hunger, disease, and wasted potential, simply because conflict prevented them from having enough to eat.
In just over two months, violence has shattered South Sudan’s fragile markets. Trade is disrupted, food supplies looted, and shops destroyed. In Bentiu, the capital of Unity State, where some of the fiercest fighting has taken place and where Concern is working to deliver safe drinking water and provide sanitation, among other services, very little food is available. Whatever is there is too expensive for families, many of whom lost their homes and livelihoods to the fighting. Our teams are already hearing from families that they are scavenging for plants such as water lilies to feed themselves.
This is not only happening in Bentiu, but all across South Sudan.
We are already seeing malnutrition rise among South Sudan’s internally displaced children. In the capital, Juba, our teams are screening children under five years old for malnutrition.
Of the more than 7,100 children we have screened, approximately 6% are malnourished and require treatment. The reality is that they are among the lucky ones. They made it to a UN base where they can receive food, medical care, water, and other services from Concern Worldwide and other humanitarian organisations.
The majority are not so fortunate. Because insecurity and widespread looting made it impossible for humanitarian organisations to get to outlying areas, less than half of those displaced inside South Sudan have received humanitarian assistance.
Getting back to their communities in time to plant for the next harvest is paramount for these people.
Agriculture accounts for 80% of employment in South Sudan. If crops are not planted, much of the country’s food and income supply will be decimated. Food will become even harder to come by and prices will rise even higher, making it difficult, if not impossible, for the majority of South Sudanese to afford to feed their families.
Malnutrition will undoubtedly rise and lives — mostly children’s — will be lost simply because they did not have enough food to eat. Those children who do survive are likely to be irreversibly stunted — cognitively, physically, or both — because they did not get enough nutrients to develop and grow.
On an individual level, a stunted child can lose as much as 10% of her or his lifetime earnings as an adult. Countries with high levels of malnutrition can lose as much as 8% of their gross domestic product because of stunting.
As one of the poorest countries in the world, this is something South Sudan cannot afford.
We have one month to get families back to their communities and planting. This can be the generation of South Sudanese whose lives are not defined by war, poverty, and hunger. But all hostilities must end and peace and security have to be restored.
Less than one month for people to return to their fields before the rains, and plant the crops they need to survive, to avoid a preventable hunger crisis. The clock is ticking.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
