28,000 people face starvation in South Sudan: minister
Tuesday August 06 2019
A mother shows her remaining stock of food as her children look on at their shelter at an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camp at Barmayen village in Aweil State, South Sudan on November 22, 2017. A minister has announced that more than 20,000 people in the state are currently facing serious starvation. PHOTO | AFP
Some 28,000 people are facing serious starvation in South Sudan’s Aweil State, a minister has said.
Those in the rural areas are most at risk, Aweil State Minister of Agriculture John Amar Akook added.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification also said that some 275,000 people have been facing a food crisis between May and July in the same area.
Mr Akook, quoted in the local English daily Juba Monitor, added that the food gap has contributed to looming poverty and hunger in rural areas after seasonal rains caused flooding. People living in the lowlands were most affected -- they were unable to cultivate their farms as a result of the floods.
Recently, aid agencies warned that about 8.1 million South Sudanese are at risk of being food insecure.
The humanitarian crisis in South Sudan deteriorated after the outbreak of civil war in 2013.
The UN rated the humanitarian crisis as one of the worst in the world.