“Thousands of citizens who returned from South Sudan are at risk of starvation”: UN

Thousands of South Sudanese refugees who have fled the violent conflict in Sudan are facing a ‘hunger emergency’, according to the United Nations. According to the United Nations, 90 percent of the refugees are spending many days without food.

The World Food Program of the United Nations (WFP) said that in the last five months, about 300,000 South Sudanese citizens have been forced to return home due to fighting between the forces loyal to Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former aide Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

According to the organization, 20 percent of children under the age of five are malnourished and the young victims have been seriously affected by this crisis. At least 7,500 people have lost their lives since the conflict started in mid-April.

Many cease-fires to stop the violence have failed. Because of this, thousands of people have been pushed to the border of Sudan, and there is a fear of humanitarian crisis in many areas. South Sudanese are returning to a country already facing massive humanitarian needs, WFP said.

“Those arriving today are in an even more vulnerable situation than the families who fled in the early weeks of the conflict,” WFP said.

South Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world, became independent from Sudan in 2011. But shortly after independence, the newly born country was divided and traumatized when it was hit by violent conflict.

Before the official end of the civil war in 2018, 380,000 people died in the five years of bloodshed in this country. With more than sixty ethnic groups and a population of 12 million, South Sudan faces deadly violence, natural disasters and constant political conflict.