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STORY: SOUTH SUDAN / FOOD CRISIS
TRT: 2:57
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN
DATELINE: 2 – 28 FEBRUARY 2018, HAAT, AYOD COUNTY, SOUTH SUDAN / KAKUMA CAMP, KENYA
2 FEBRUARY 2018, HAAT, AYOD COUNTY, SOUTH SUDAN
1. Med shot, man sitting with malnourished child
2. Close up, legs of malnourished child
3. Close up, woman
4. Med shot, family with malnourished child
5. Various shots, testing child for malnourishment
6. Various shots, children eating reeds
7. SOUNDBITE (Nuer) Mine Pusk Luoch, 8 years old:
“I come here to eat these reeds because we don’t have food”
8. Tracking shot, woman carrying load of water lilies on her head
9. Wide shot, women cleaning waterlilies
10. Med shot, family
11. Various shots, food aid distribution
28 FEBRUARY 2018, KAKUMA CAMP, KENYA
12. Aerial shot, Kakuma 3 camp
13. Pan left, track with refugees passing by
14. Wide shot, refugees getting off track
15. Tracking shot, refugees walking to distribution center
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Karimi, WFP Spokesperson, Kenya:
“Most of the refugees in Kakuma come from South Sudan, conflict in South Sudan has been going on for quite a long time and the last spike was in 2104 but still we‘re getting about a thousand people every month. When they arrive here the World Food Programme is giving them a hot meal before they get allocated a piece of land where they continue receiving food rations as well as cash transfers from the World Food Programme”
17. Wide shot, people waiting in line
18. Tilt down, hot food distribution
19. Wide shot, woman walking to tent
20. Close up, pot with food
21. Various shots, children eating
Severely malnourished child Nyadane Kuony 4 years old with her granparents. They arrived in Haat from Bentiu in 2016 following fighting in her homeland. Her father died before she was born and her mother is temporarily away. Nyadane started losing weight when she was in Bentiu following the crisis.
With no other food available, people resort to eating reeds and waterlilies.
SOUNDBITE (Nuer) Mine Pusk Luoch, 8 years old:
“I came here to eat these reeds because we don’t have food”
South Sudanese refugees continue to flee into neighbouring countries such as Kenya, where Kakuma Camp hosts more than 106,000 refugees from South Sudan.
In 2017, a total of 23,288 refugees arrived in Kakuma – out of these, 16,622 came from South Sudan.
World Food Programme (WFP) assists the newly arrived with cooked meals while they stay at the reception centre.
SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Karimi, WFP Spokesperson, Kenya:
“Most of the refugees in Kakuma come from South Sudan, conflict in South Sudan has been going on for quite a long time and the last spike was in 2104 but still we‘re getting about a thousand people every month. When they arrive here the World Food Programme is giving them a hot meal before they get allocated a piece of land where they continue receiving food rations as well as cash transfers from the World Food Programme”
After they are allocated a plot of land and a house, they receive a monthly food ration containing cereal, pulses, vegetable oil, corn-soya blend, salt, and get a cash transfer that allows them to buy food from designated shops.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warn that progress made to prevent people from dying of hunger could be undone, and more people than ever could be pushed into severe hunger and famine-like conditions during May-July unless assistance and access are maintained. The report comes one year after famine was declared in parts of South Sudan in February 2017.
If this happens, this will be the highest ever number of food insecure people in South Sudan. The period of greatest risk will be the lean season, between May and July. Particularly at risk are 155,000 people, including 29,000 children, who could suffer from the most extreme levels of hunger.
In January, 5.3 million people, or nearly half of the population, were already struggling to find enough food each day and were in “crisis” or “emergency” levels of food insecurity (IPC Phases 3 and 4), according to an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report released today. This represents a 40 percent increase in the number of severely food insecure people compared to January 2017.
Overall hunger levels have risen due to protracted conflict that led to reduced food production and constantly disrupted livelihoods. This was further exacerbated by economic collapse, which impacted markets and trade, making them unable to compensate for the decrease in local food production.
Prolonged dry spells, flooding and continued pest infestation, such as Fall Armyworm, have also had a damaging impact.
In areas like Unity, Jonglei, Upper Nile, and Central Equatoria, riddled by reoccurring outbreaks of violent conflict and displacement, the proportion of people suffering from extreme food insecurity ranges from 52 to 62 percent – more than half the states’ combined population. The number is expected to keep increasing unless people find the means to receive, produce or buy their own food.
Conflict and worsening hunger have led to already soaring rates of malnutrition. Without assistance, as of May, more than 1.3 million children under five will be at risk of acute malnutrition.
Malnutrition rates are set to rise once the rainy season starts in April. Once this happens, many communities will become isolated and unable to reach medical services. The rains will make the country’s dirt roads unusable, and it will become more and more difficult to deliver supplies to medical centres.
Of particular concern are the areas around Leer, Mayendit, Longochuk and Renk where children under five face extremely critical levels of malnutrition.
Last year, FAO, WFP, UNICEF and their partners rolled out their largest ever aid campaign, saving lives and containing famine. In 2017, agency partners conducted more than 135 rapid humanitarian missions to the most hard-to-reach areas, providing life-saving assistance to over 1.8 million people.
FAO provided 5 million people – many in difficult-to-reach or conflict-affected areas – with seeds and tools for planting, and fishing kits in 2017. FAO has also vaccinated more than 6.1 million livestock to keep animals alive and healthy. This has been vital as most of the population rely on livestock for their survival.
UNICEF and partners admitted some 208,000 children with severe acute malnutrition in 2017 and plan to reach 215,000 this year. Together with WFP, UNICEF took part in 51 rapid response missions in 2017 to reach communities cut off from regular aid assistance. The Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) will remain a key means of accessing conflict-affected communities in the coming months.
At the peak of its response this year, WFP aims to reach 4.4 million people with life-saving food and nutrition assistance. WFP is pre-positioning food in areas likely to be cut off during the rainy season, so people will not go hungry. WFP plans to pre-position 140,000 metric tons of food and nutrition supplies – 20 percent more than in 2017 – in more than 50 locations across the country.
