Civil strife is like an ill wind that blows nobody any good. South Sudan was born out of strife in 2010 and it has been engulfed in strife since then.
Officials of the United Nations and some Western nations have labored for years to help the young country acquire the basic rudiments of nationhood.
Reports from Juba say that the country is close to another famine. They quote UN aid officials as blaming the current situation on the more than four years of civil war and failed ceasefires in the world’s youngest nation.
The officials say that more than half of the population will need urgent food aid this year to stand any chance of surviving the imminent starvation and malnutrition in the land.
European Union envoys who visited South Sudan last week asked some aid groups operating in the country to take urgent steps to prepare for the dire situation.
The EU officials described 2018 as the “toughest year on record”, urging their home governments to make extra-budgetary provisions to bail out South Sudan.
According to a release from Mr. Serge Tissot, a top official of the Food and Agricultural Organization, FAO, an agency of the UN, “The situation is extremely fragile, and we are close to seeing another famine. The projections are stark. If we ignore them, we’ll be faced with a growing tragedy”.
A survey released by UN and EU officials shows that more than five million people, about 48 percent of the population, have already hit crisis point on the yardstick of measuring national emergency.
