Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 07th Nov. World food agency on Monday said that children in flood-affected areas in South Sudan are at risk of extreme malnutrition in the first half of 2024, with food running low and water-borne diseases spreading fast amid crowded living conditions.
WFP said 1.6 million children under five are expected to suffer from malnutrition in 2024.
Rubkona, a county where floodwaters have permanently submerged entire communities or trapped them on small islands since 2021, will be affected.
Mary-Ellen McGroarty, WFP Representative to South Sudan warned “This is the reality of living on the frontline of the climate crisis,”.
She stressed that the spread of waterborne diseases “unravels any work humanitarian agencies do in preventing and treating malnutrition and it is young children who are suffering the impact most severely”.
Rubkona is predicted to be on the brink of famine for the first time ever.
WFP said that this is a result of the floods along with “severe economic shocks” which have sent the prices of staple foods soaring by more than 120 per cent since last April.
The agency highlighted an expected rise in the number of people facing catastrophic hunger across the country to 79,000 by April, “largely due to South Sudanese returnees fleeing fighting in Sudan”.
According to the UNHCR 300,000 returnees have crossed the border from Sudan since the conflict there erupted almost seven months ago.
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