With an estimated 7.2 million people in South Sudan treading on the precipice of the worst food insecurity, Tearfund—a Christian relief and development agency—is calling for action to improve food security.

The call for actions against hunger by Tearfund Country Director for South Sudan, Anthony Rama, came as the country stares at unending nutritional challenges.

“South Sudan’s food security situation has been appalling and from the beginning of the year, it deteriorated even further due to compounding shocks including persistent flooding, ongoing violence in some parts of the country, displacement, and the COVID-19 pandemic,” Rama lamented.

The director stressed that food security weakens people’s health and nutritional status and exposes them to greater risks.

The call to action comes as the globe celebrates World Food International Day, an initiative by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations that marks a day calling for worldwide awareness and collective action to combat the issue of hunger and ensure healthy diets for all. 

The theme for World Food Day 2021 is “our actions are our future- better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life”. 

Mr. Rama said the day is important in the context of South Sudan because it offers a major platform for advocacy and fights against malnutrition.

“Food is one of the essential requirements for the sustenance of life and this day is observed every year to raise awareness about the importance of food and nutrition and to call for action towards addressing hunger,” Rama explained.

Floods, COVID-19 impact

Torrential rains resulted in unprecedented flooding which has swept across several states in the country with Unity and Jonglei state being the most affected. Several homes and farms have been destroyed by the floodwaters. Rama said there was a need for cooperation to mitigate such disasters from happening in the future. 

“This is an ultimate call for a concerted and integrated effort from the humanitarian community as well as the national and state governments to avert the situation from escalating further since the need continues to grow.”

Thousands of people have been affected by the floods leaving them vulnerable to threats of water-borne diseases like cholera and typhoid and Bilharzia 

Hospitals noting numbers

For example, Kwejian Akoro, a clinical officer at the pediatric ward in Bentiu Hospital, said the hospital was witnessing a spike in the number of malnutrition-related case 

“In a week, we are receiving more than 20 cases. And, currently because of the flooding, we have received more cases because of complications. 98 percent are malaria cases, 98 percent have diarrhea and 98 percent come with vomiting. Those are complications that are associated with malnutrition,” Akoro revealed.

On Thursday, Segowat Savior Cleva, a Medical Director at Kajo-Keji Civil hospital also confirmed that cases of malnutrition were on the rise in Kajo-Keji County especially among returnees as most of them have no access to food.

“What I have seen here is the problem of food and things are expensive and the vulnerable people returning home do not have access to food. When there is no good feeding the health of people is affected,” said Dr. Savior.

Tearfund is currently working with funding partners such as DEC, USAID/BHA, Canadian Food Grains Bank, ECHO, Dutch Relief Alliance, FAO, WFP, National and International Organisations to address food insecurity and hunger among vulnerable people.

Rama revealed that the local communities have also been part of the emergency response.

“This has been done through increasing productivity and quality of agricultural produce, food distributions, and training on improved agronomic practices as well as nutrition-sensitive agriculture. These are key components of food security and livelihood interventions,” Rama said.

“In these initiatives, we target vulnerable returnees, IDP households, and host communities.”

In Aweil East and Kajo-Keji, Tearfund has provided immediate food assistance to 3,000 households that are the most vulnerable and food insecure.

Similar interventions have been initiated in Aweil East County, where over 800 households have been reached with multipurpose cash through electronic vouchers. Vouchers are used for purchasing food and non-food items in local markets.

“Tearfund provided more than 47,000 affected households in Uror, Pochalla, Twic East, Kajo Keji, Morobo, Aweil East, and Aweil South counties with agricultural inputs for horticulture and quick-maturing field crops that enable households to start cultivation and harvest within 6-10 weeks. This includes vegetable seeds, early maturing crop varieties, and standard kits for main and dry seasons.”