Borgerkrigen i Sydsudan har spredt så meget kaos og ødelæggelse, at op mod en tredjedel af befolkningen nu mangler mad. Indbyggerne i de tre delstater, der er mest berørt af borgerkrigen, sulter mest.
JUBA, 10 May 2014 (FAO): The latest IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) food security analysis carried out in South Sudan indicates that, as a result of conflict, displacement, destroyed markets and disrupted livelihoods, food security has deteriorated at an alarming rate since the outbreak of conflict in December 2013.
There is a high likelihood of further worsening through the second half of 2014, with a risk of famine, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today.
One-third of the population of South Sudan is now experiencing emergency levels of food insecurity. Some areas of the country to appear to be at high risk of famine in the coming months.
The latest warnings on food insecurity in South Sudan are based on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis conducted in April and May. Through the IPC process in South Sudan, complex food and nutrition information was analysed to support strategic evidence-based decisions.
The findings are based on technical consensus among a multi-stakeholders coalition, including Government, FAO, the World Food Programme (WFP), other UN agencies, NGOs and academics.
The IPC is the global standard for objectively measuring food security conditions.
Rapid decline in food security
There has been an alarming increase in the number of people in the IPC Food Security Emergency Phase (scoring 4 on the IPC scale of 5), especially in the three most conflict-affected states of Unity, Upper Nile and Jonglei. In terms of response, these populations need urgent humanitarian assistance to save lives and livelihoods.
No populations in South Sudan faced this level of food insecurity before the onset of violence in mid December 2013. Today, some 1.3 million people out of a population of 11.5 million are experiencing Emergency levels of food insecurity.
In addition, there are 2.4 million people in IPC Food Security Crisis Phase (scoring 3 in the IPC scale of 5) which means they need urgent assistance to save and protect livelihoods.
Taken together, more than one-third of the total population of South Sudan is facing exceptional levels of food insecurity.
‘These statistics are a technical way of saying there is widespread hunger and growing malnutrition that combines dangerously with diseases, livelihood losses and frankly, death,” said Sue Lautze, FAO Head of Office in South Sudan and the UN’s Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator there.
“Although this is the most serious crisis to affect South Sudan in at least 15 years, the IPC has concluded there is not a famine situation now (scoring 5 in the IPC scale of 5) This means there is a small window of opportunity to prevent this terrible crisis from deteriorating into catastrophe,” Lautze emphasized.
“Humanitarian assistance is critical to prevent a slide into famine while seeing a rapid end to the fighting would certainly be of paramount importance,” she added
Just as the numbers of people affected by serious food insecurity have increased, so have the number of areas affected.
The food security crisis is spreading westwards to areas that had been less affected earlier in the year.
This trend is set to continue unless farmers can plant their fields, fisherfolk can freely access rivers and waterways, and herders can migrate between grazing areas. Even previously food secure communities are feeling the strain of conflict, in part due to the burden of hosting internally displaced people.
Communities at serious risk of famine
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