Duk County residents go hungry without food aid

Relief from the sky: people in the most remote and difficult to reach areas of South Sudan rely on WFP airdrops for food. (Photos: WFP/Sabine Starke (L) and WFP/Photolibrary)

Local officials and inhabitants of Duk County in Jonglei State have complained of hunger after going for months without food aid amid devastation by floods.

Several local people sounded out by Radio Tamazuj said they have been going hungry because no food aid has reached them since last October.

“As you know, we did not cultivate last year so we have been relying on UN food but since September last year, we got nothing,” Deng Aleer, a Duk resident said.

Another resident, Alat Kuol Deng, said they relied on fish and have no grain.

“The only thing we rely on here in the Poktap area is fish. I have little children who are not able to eat fish in the morning and evening,” Kuol said. “Here we are not able to cultivate because of the floods so the situation is not good.”

Alat Kuol, who also heads the women association appealed to the government and aid agencies operating in the country to intervene, saying children are getting malnourished because there is no proper nutrition.

For his part, John Chatim, the Duk county commissioner, said over 30, 000 households in parts of the county have gone hungry for months because aid agencies have not been able to support the vulnerable families since September.

“There has been no food aid for six months. People are really hungry. Last month, as WFP was organizing food for distribution, their convoy was attacked,” Commissioner Chatim explained. “For that reason, they suspended operations. But as a government, we boosted security and we want them to resume because hunger is too much.” 

Last week, the World Food Programme (WFP) said it is committed to providing food and nutritional assistance to vulnerable people across South Sudan, despite a significant lack of resources and other operational challenges it’s grappling with.

“Due to logistical constraints, WFP uses airdrops to reach communities in Nyirol County, Jonglei State, with food assistance,” WFP’s Communications Officer, Musa Mahadi Ateib said. “The communities did not receive their full expected food ration in December as WFP did not have sufficient aircraft to complete all the airdrop tasks.”

He added: “However, this has now been remedied with the arrival of a replacement aircraft and in January the affected communities will be prioritized, receiving the top-up food ration to cover the months of January and February.”

He said WFP and partners are responding to unprecedented needs for food assistance, including to communities affected by floods in more than a third of the country

Jonglei State has been hit by the worst floods in 60 years since 2020, leaving thousands of families homeless without food and other basic needs.