Widespread flooding in recent months combined with inter-communal conflict and soaring food prices has driven South Sudan into its worst hunger crisis since independence in 2011. Save the Children urged the international community not to overlook South Sudan or to divert funding to other crises
JUBA OCTOBER 19: South Sudan is among five of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, with drought and devastating floods a common feature. Coupled with this, nearly a decade of conflict, frequent displacements, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity and multiple disease outbreaks, families and children here are on the brink. We must not leave any one behind.”, said Pornpun Jib Rabiltossaporn, Save the Children‘s Country Director in South Sudan.
South Sudan is one of a number of countries crippled by the worst global hunger crisis this century, fuelled by a deadly mix of poverty, conflict, climate change, and economic shocks, with the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis in Ukraine further driving up food prices and the cost of living. One million people are facing famine across five countries, with estimates that one person is dying every four seconds of hunger.
In the town of Tonj in Warrap state, about 550km (340 miles) north of the capital Juba, traders at a local market said the price of staple foods, such as flour, rice and sugar, have more than doubled since the start of the year.
In nearby villages, farming families saw little hope of an end to the flooding caused by late and heavy seasonal rains that has left their houses and land up to two feet (0.6 metres) underwater, a breeding ground for snakes.
