United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has released an urgent appeal for $1.7 billion to help 6.6 million people facing food insecurity in South Sudan.

The UN agency made this known in its 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Africa’s youngest country.

South Sudan has been struggling with communal conflict, plus the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and frequent flooding.

More than 1.4 million South Sudanese are displaced inside the country, with many seeking refuge in neighbouring countries, according to a report by Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE).

The years-long civil war has contributed to an economic crisis and below-average harvest that continues to send food prices skyrocketing.

The result has been a food crisis that has seen 9,000 people losing access to food every day.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, Alain Noudéhou, while launching the humanitarian response plan, said funds were needed urgently to help millions of people.

‘In addition to Covid-19, you recall 2020 was a year of another massive flooding that the country has experienced, displacing millions of people in 2020’, Noudehou said.

‘You recall that the entire communal conflict also has basically sparked a little bit out of control during the year 2020’, the UN official said.

Noudehou said they would prepare for the coming rainy season by fixing dikes and roads and moving emergency supplies into place to avoid being cut off by floods.

He said South Sudan’s government needed to prioritise security to make sure that people who need assistance can receive it.

Noudehou said if humanitarian agencies do not get the funding in a timely manner, their remaining resources may soon be depleted.

Source: UNOCHA

Photo source: UNDP