South Sudan threatened with acute food insecurity in 2025

United Nations agencies warned on Monday that food insecurity could become acute in 2025 in South Sudan.

“Nearly 60% of the population in this country will be acutely food insecure during the lean season of 2025,” said the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). ) in a press release.

The lean season is the period preceding the first harvests and when grain from the previous harvest may run out. This situation is often accompanied by a shortage and a considerable surge in prices, sometimes accentuated by speculation.

The two agencies noted that returnees fleeing war in Sudan and young children face some of the highest levels of hunger and malnutrition, while economic pressures, extreme weather events and the effects of war in the neighboring countries worsen hunger.

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These alarming new data show that acute food insecurity and malnutrition are worsening due to the economic crisis, repeated climate shocks – mainly widespread flooding – as well as conflict and insecurity, it was explained. same source.

“Year after year we see hunger reaching some of the highest levels we have seen in South Sudan and when we look at the areas with the highest levels of food insecurity, it is clear that a cocktail of despair – conflict and climate crisis – is the main driver,” said the WFP representative in this country, Mary-Ellen McGroarty.

For her part, UNICEF representative Hamida Lasseko noted that malnutrition “is the end result of a series of crises, the most notable of which for South Sudan is the lack of sanitation and the prevalence of water-borne diseases, as well as severe food insecurity”.

According to the UN official, this involves tackling these root causes, alongside “providing immediate nutritional support to treat malnutrition in children who are more likely to die”.

With MAP