from RAJI BASHIR in Khartoum, Sudan
Sudan Bureau
KHARTOUM, (CAJ News) – OVER 60 000 malnourished children in South Sudan risk sinking further into malnutrition after fighting by rival forces cut a lifesaving humanitarian supply route.
The Upper Nile state is bearing the brunt, in a country that is feared to be plunging into another civil war.
Intensified fighting along the White Nile River has meant no humanitarian supplies have reached the area in almost a month.
The river is the main humanitarian supply corridor into Upper Nile.
Upper Nile has some of the highest rates of malnutrition in South Sudan, with over 300 000 children affected by moderate or severe malnutrition in the past year.
Without urgent access and resupply of vital assistance, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) expect to exhaust nutrition supplies to treat moderate and severe cases of malnutrition by the end of May.
“Children are already the first to suffer during emergencies,” said Mary-Ellen McGroarty, WFP representative in South Sudan.
“If we can’t get nutrition supplies through, we are likely to see escalating malnutrition in areas already at breaking point,” she added.
In mid-April, barges carrying 1 000 metric tonnes of food and nutrition supplies bound for the Upper Nile were forced to return due to insecurity.
Almost 3 000 additional metric tonnes are on standby in Bor – a humanitarian cargo hub along the Nile River – ready for delivery as soon as conditions allow.
Due to security concerns and the high value of nutrition supplies, WFP and UNICEF are unable to preposition stock in insecure areas as doing so would leave health facilities and warehouses increasingly vulnerable to looting.
“We have reluctantly taken the unprecedented step of holding back supplies for fear that they will not reach the children that so desperately need them, due to the ongoing fighting, looting and disruption of the river route,” UNICEF’s representative, Obia Achieng, said.
South Sudan is the world’s newest country after gaining independence in 2011.
It was ravaged by a civil war that started in 2013.
A peace agreement was reached in 2018 but is at risk as rival political leaders fall out again.
– CAJ News