Top official says thousands facing starvation in Northern Bahr el Ghazal after WFP aid cut

JUBA – Thousands are facing starvation in South Sudan’s Northern Bahr el Ghazal State after the suspension of food aid begins to hit the area, a senior government official in Aweil tells Sudans Post.

Dut Majokdit, the head of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, said the humanitarian situation in the state has worsened since the suspension of food aid by the World Food Programme.

“Regarding these floods, people are hungry and there is no food. Those vulnerable who were supported by WFP, the WFP have cut the food in South Sudan and in particular North Bahr el Ghazal,” Majokdit told Sudans Post in an interview on Monday.

On 14 June 2022, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) suspended rationing programs in South Sudan due to a lack of funding.

The move will affect almost a third of the 6.2 million people in South Sudan the WFP had planned to assist this year.

Majok said about 77,000 people in Aweil South and 1, 76,000 in Aweil East displaced by last year’s floods that largely depend on WFP food aid are facing hunger after the cut.

Some 800,000 people were reported to have been affected by flooding since May last year in eight of the country’s 10 states – with Jonglei, Unity, Warrap, Greater Pibor Administrative Area, Lakes, Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal and Upper Nile state being worst affected.

Majokdit urged aid agencies to provide emergency relief.

“We request general distribution of food to the affected population and we urge humanitarian actors and agencies to support our people by providing shelters to those affected by floods in Awei East and Aweil South and those who have been displaced from Abyei,” he said.

“We request other projects on the resilient to be introduced instead of depending all the time on general food distribution. We need other projects that can sustain the lives of our people.”