The foreign aid cuts that were initiated by the British government against South Sudan earlier this year have a negative bearing on the functions of some humanitarian organisations. This is according to Chief Executive of Christian Aid, Amanda Mukwashi,  who avers that humanitarian need in South Sudan, has hit alarming levels, hence, there should never be any steps for rationing the assistance.

‘‘The situation in South Sudan…tells a grimly familiar story. There, over 7 million people – some 60 per cent of the population – are struggling to get enough food to live on and 82 per cent  are living in extreme poverty,’’ Mukwashi noted in a commentary published by a UK blog politics.co.uk on Friday, June 25.

He then lamented the decision terming it detrimental to the survival of organisations currently involved in helping South Sudanese in need.

He said, ‘‘the recent UK government decision to cut aid to South Sudan by almost two-thirds feels at best reckless. One casualty of the aid cuts is Christian Aid’s church-led peace building work.’’

The Christian Aid boss said COVID-19 crises had aggravated the hunger problem, which is felt from ‘South Sudan to Ethiopia, and Afghanistan to Burkina Faso and North-Eastern Nigeria, where millions of people are now confronting the terrible threat of famine’.

In South Sudan, Mukwashi revealed that the United Nations had zoned six counties and marked them as areas with dire humanitarian assistance. The boss of the aid organisation said that although the country had made steps in implementing the 2018 peace deal, political instability still lurks in some states creating the hunger problem.

‘‘…we also know that, despite the 2018 peace agreement, ongoing conflict in some parts of the country has made an already difficult situation much worse,’’ he stated.