The spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday said the World Food Programme (WFP) has begun airdropping emergency food assistance to thousands of people in the Upper Nile State, where surging conflict since March has pushed some communities to the brink of famine.
According to Stephane Dujarric, who was briefing the press in New York, these distributions mark WFP’s first access in over four months to deliver much-needed food and nutrition assistance to more than 40,000 people facing catastrophic hunger in the most remote parts of Nasir and Ulang counties in the state. The areas are only accessible by air.
“More than one million people across Upper Nile are estimated to be facing acute hunger, including over 30,000 people who are already experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger, which is the highest level of food insecurity on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification scale (IPC5),” he stated. “This figure has tripled since armed conflict flared in March, triggering mass displacement, including across the border into Ethiopia, where WFP is already providing food aid to around 50,000 people who have fled from Upper Nile State due to the conditions there.”
“Nationwide, 7.7 million people in South Sudan, which is about 57 percent of the population, are facing crisis, emergency, or catastrophic levels of hunger. An unprecedented 2.3 million children are at risk of malnutrition,” Dujarric added.
He said that, unfortunately, a global funding slowdown is worsening the already dire humanitarian situation in the country and that WFP urgently needs $274 million to continue its aid operations through December.
“It warns that if we cannot get food to people, hunger will deepen and famine is a real and present threat,” Dujarric ended.