Kapoeta East residents return home amid life-threatening hunger
Despite the nagging hunger and shortage of water troubling the villages, a large number of people who had been displaced in northern Kapoeta have returned home.
The chairperson of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC), Augustine Okuma, said the increase in the number of people was discovered after the South Sudan Red Cross delivered non-food items to support the IDPs in the area.
Out of over 3,000 people, he said only 320 of them had remained behind.
“Most of these people have gone back. So the reason why they left is not known, but what is clear is that when they came to these two areas of Lokonge and Wokobu, they also put pressure on the little resources because there is only one dam there. “It was used for domestic purposes, and the animals drank from it,” he explained.
“So the pressure on this one is too much. So, perhaps they see the resources depleting and have returned, or perhaps other factors have compelled them to return,” Okuma said.
Due to extreme starvation in the area, approximately 3,000 families migrated from Kapoeta East to Kapoeta North last month, with others fleeing into Ethiopia.
In December last year, displaced people, mostly women, the elderly, and children, arrived in Wokobu Payam in Kapoeta North.
In Kapoeta East, a semi-desert area where cattle rearing is the main source of income, cattle rearing is the main source of income. Because of this, there is little water available for the animals to drink every year around this time.
The rain was very erratic last year. It began late, and by the end of the year, it had become excessive. As a result, the harvest has been disappointing, according to the RRC chairperson in Eastern Equatoria State.
Mr Okuma said the World Food Program had delivered food to Kapoeta East on Monday, which would arrive on Wednesday to nourish the affected population.
“It is like they are moving back and forth,” he said.
According to Okuma, the humanitarian organisations in the state, which are made up of sixteen partners and the government, conducted an initial repaid assessment on January 26, 2022, with the help of deep field coordination.
Last year, Reena Ghelani, the Director for Operations and Advocacy at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the UN Security Council meeting number8859 that South Sudan is experiencing its highest levels of food insecurity since independence in 2011, with more than 60 per cent of the country’s population suffering from severe food insecurity due to conflict, climate shocks, displacement, COVID-19, and a lack of investment.
Hunger strikes
According to Ghelani, about 8.3 million individuals, including 1.4 million children, require assistance. She noted that while humanitarian actors have so far been able to avert starvation; attacks by non-state armed groups continue to obstruct their access to vulnerable populations.
According to a humanitarian report released in 2021, flooding, conflict and insecurity, and population displacements, as well as illnesses and pests that significantly affect agricultural productivity, access to food, and livelihoods, are the key contributors to the country’s high acute food insecurity.
In 2020, people in nine of South Sudan’s 10 states harvested 50 per cent less cereal and vegetables on average than they did in 2019. In Jonglei, Upper Nile, Warrap, Unity, and Lakes states, the start of the lean season (March-August) may increase food insecurity.
Asset depletion and loss of livelihoods have also contributed to the loss of livelihoods, an increase in food insecurity and malnutrition across the country, exacerbated by the consequences of COVID-19 and generally limited access to essential services, the report said.
