South Sudan food scarcity gets serious

Close to a million people in South Sudan now rely on wild plants, water scarcity and swampfish as a result of two years of fighting caused by a political row.

Farmers were prevented from planting crops as the fighting displaced millions and increased famine.

The displaced persons now live at Rumbeck located in Central South Sudan.

“We left home because there was a lot of fighting and nothing to eat at all. The hunger was too much for us ,” Nyepach Benyluok an internally displaced civilian laments.

Food delivery has been made difficult by heavy rains and groups of displaced civilians are benefiting from the benevolence of well wishers.

“If I did not help them, they would be in a bad situation. Thats why I decided to host them because they have nowhere to go.They heard I am also nuer so they came and I could not chase them away,” Adhieu Chol who hosts displaced persons told the press. Nyepach Benyluok and her family have been surviving thanks to wild nuts and fruits from trees.

Some of the displaced took up to a week to get to Rumbeck.

Agencies in South Sudan have been monitoring the situation,“we expect that more people will come if the situation remains the same,” Kannavee Suebsang who heads the UNHCR office in Rumbeck reassured inquistive pressmen.

The political environment in South Sudan has been tensed since the country’s independence in 2011.

A political row between Salva Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar sparked an armed conflict in December 2013.

Efforts to calm rising tension through proposed ceasefires have been futile. A general atmosphere of doubt reigns in both camps.