WFP needs over $560 to scale-up aid response in South Sudan

JUBA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is seeking $568 million to scale up emergency food assistance to flood victims as well as to maintain all its operations across South Sudan for the next six months.

More than 700,000 people were reported to have been affected by flooding since May in eight of the country’s 10 states – with Jonglei, Unity, and Upper Nile being worst affected.

“The climate emergency is very real in South Sudan, causing unspeakable suffering, destroying people’s livelihoods and pushing them deeper into poverty and hunger,” said Adeyinka Badejo, Acting Country Director of the World Food Programme in South Sudan said in a statement issued on Tuesday,

Adeyinka said the WFP is delivering vital food and other supplies by air to more than 300,000 people in most areas that have been cut off by floods.

“WFP is re-prioritizing and redirecting its resources to respond to this new crisis. We are delivering vital food and supplies by air to people in areas that have been cut off by floods,” Adeyinka said.

She said the UN agency is supporting the communities to construct dykes in order to control floodwaters as well as protect farmlands and people from floods.

She added that they are also repairing roads that have been washed away by heavy floods in order to connect people to local markets and essential services.

“In South Sudan, WFP works across all pathways of emergency relief and early recovery and development to create an enabling environment for the people of South Sudan and equip them with the tools to build a future for generations to come,”  she Badejo.

She said the scale of devastation has seriously impacted people’s livelihoods and food production posing a threat to food security and nutrition.