AFP, Durban :
The famine ravaging South Sudan and its neighbours could claim six million lives, a charity warned Friday, as the international community struggles to raise the $4.4 billion needed to avert a full-blown disaster.
The food crisis in the world’s youngest country is one of the key issues being discussed at this week’s World Economic Forum on Africa in Durban, which has brought together the continent’s business and political elite.
Saira Khan, the chief executive of the charity Stop Hunger Now Southern Africa, warned that a chaotic international response to the situation in South Sudan was threatening the lives of millions.
“It’s pretty gloomy. We’re seeing a lot of confusion amongst the NGOs and governments in terms of what needs to be done,” she said.
“It’s a difficult time for that region-and if we don’t do anything we’re going to have six million people dead at the end of this year because of famine.”
In February, South Sudan and the United Nations formally declared a famine in some parts of the northern Greater Unity region affecting 100,000 people, a disaster UN officials said was “man-made” and could have been averted.
After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, the country descended into civil war in December 2013 when a power struggle erupted between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar. Tens of thousands died and more than 3.5 million have been displaced.
“The real instability in the area with the war and migrants just going and settling where they can has contributed to this and put enormous pressure on Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda,” Khan said.
Oxfam International’s executive director Winnie Byanyima told AFP that a huge funding shortfall for relief efforts was threatening lives.
The UN has estimated that $4.4 billion is needed by July to avoid widespread loss of life in South Sudan-but just 26 percent of that has been raised so far.
“The need is huge, the gap is huge,” Byanyima said. “It needs to be filled urgently. When people die in a famine it’s a sign of failure because you can prevent it if you act early enough.”
The famine ravaging South Sudan and its neighbours could claim six million lives, a charity warned Friday, as the international community struggles to raise the $4.4 billion needed to avert a full-blown disaster.
The food crisis in the world’s youngest country is one of the key issues being discussed at this week’s World Economic Forum on Africa in Durban, which has brought together the continent’s business and political elite.
Saira Khan, the chief executive of the charity Stop Hunger Now Southern Africa, warned that a chaotic international response to the situation in South Sudan was threatening the lives of millions.
“It’s pretty gloomy. We’re seeing a lot of confusion amongst the NGOs and governments in terms of what needs to be done,” she said.
“It’s a difficult time for that region-and if we don’t do anything we’re going to have six million people dead at the end of this year because of famine.”
In February, South Sudan and the United Nations formally declared a famine in some parts of the northern Greater Unity region affecting 100,000 people, a disaster UN officials said was “man-made” and could have been averted.
After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, the country descended into civil war in December 2013 when a power struggle erupted between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar. Tens of thousands died and more than 3.5 million have been displaced.
“The real instability in the area with the war and migrants just going and settling where they can has contributed to this and put enormous pressure on Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda,” Khan said.
Oxfam International’s executive director Winnie Byanyima told AFP that a huge funding shortfall for relief efforts was threatening lives.
The UN has estimated that $4.4 billion is needed by July to avoid widespread loss of life in South Sudan-but just 26 percent of that has been raised so far.
“The need is huge, the gap is huge,” Byanyima said. “It needs to be filled urgently. When people die in a famine it’s a sign of failure because you can prevent it if you act early enough.”
