South Sudan: Food Insecurity

Nearly 7 million people expected to be in acute food insecurity at the height of lean season

South Sudan is in the midst of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis driven by over four years of brutal civil war. Half of the population are facing extreme hunger and are in need of urgent aid. Help us provide food, water and sanitation now.

A disaster caused by conflict

Following a power crisis which erupted in 2013, South Sudan has spiraled into a conflict, which has spread across most parts of the country and leading to the death of tens of thousands of people.Over 4 million people – 1 in 3 – have been forced to flee their homes due to this brutal war. Nearly 2.5 million have fled to neighboring countries. There are now 1 million South Sudanese refugees in Uganda, making up about half of the country’s total refugee population. Most refugees are women and children. This is the biggest refugee crisis in Africa.

We are on the ground racing to get food, water and hygiene items to the most vulnerable people, including thousands who have fled to remote islands in the middle of huge swamps. We’re supporting over 500,000 people with emergency and longer-term support and are also responding to the refugee crisis regionally in Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia.

Our activities include:

• Providing regular emergency food distributions, as well as clean water, safe sanitation facilities, essential hygiene items and promoting good hygiene practices to help keep diseases like malaria.
• Providing vouchers for canoes so people sheltering from conflict on islands in the swamps can get to the help they need on the mainland.
• Supporting people to produce food for themselves and make a living. We provide families with assets like livestock, tools, seeds and fishing gear, as well as giving training on improved farming methods.
• Distributing cash and vouchers to families for use in markets where they’re functioning and we’re also supporting traders to build better links between communities.