WFP South Sudan Situation Report #306, 31 October 2022

Highlights:

• The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) projects that an estimated 7.76 million will face severe acute food insecurity – at the Crisis level (IPC Phase 3) or higher during the April-July 2023 lean season.

• Since August 2022, torrential rains and flash floods have swept across South Sudan, affecting more than 1 million people spread across 36 counties, with people in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Warrap, Unity and Western Equatoria states the worst affected.

• WFP has assisted 4.9 million people with food and nutrition assistance across South Sudan between January and October 2022.

In the Numbers

• 5.6 million people WFP plans to assist in 2022

• 1.4 million assisted in October

• 7.76 million people facing severe food insecurity across 78 counties (IPC); of this, 43,000 in IPC 5, 2.9 million in IPC 4, 4.8 million in IPC 3

• 2 million acutely malnourished women and children

• 2.2 million internally displaced people

• 181,947 refugees reached with food assistance in October 2022.

• USD 769 million net funding requirements for the next six months (November 2022 to April 2023)

Situation Update

• South Sudan faces a multidimensional crisis, combining security, social, economic, and political challenges. Climatic shocks, population displacements, and loss of livelihoods remain the main drivers of food insecurity. Insecurity escalated in the Greater Upper Nile and Greater Bahr el Ghazal regions as subnational violence persisted, fuelling political uncertainty and flare-ups of communal violence and tensions.

• The humanitarian situation remained dire as conflict, insecurity, and extreme weather events such as floods disrupted livelihoods across different areas in the country. Since August 2022, torrential rains and severe flash floods have swept across the country, affecting more than 1 million people across 36 counties, with people in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Warrap, Unity, and Western Equatoria states the worst affected.

• The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) projects that an estimated 7.76 million will face severe acute food insecurity – at the Crisis level (IPC Phase 3) or higher during the April-July 2023 lean season. Of the 7.76 million, 2.9 million people will face Emergency (IPC 4) acute food insecurity, and 43,000 people will be in Catastrophe (IPC 5) acute food insecurity in Akobo, Canal/Pigi and Fangak counties of Jonglei State, and Leer and Mayendit counties of Unity State. The rest, 4.8 million people, will face crisis (IPC 3) conditions. Further, 1.4 million children will be moderately or severely malnourished in 2023, marking the highest level yet observed, and surpassing the levels seen during the conflict in 2013 and 2016.

• Since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis in February 2022, the South Sudanese Pound (SSP) has depreciated by 28 percent. However, the average exchange rate remained stable in October, exchanging at SSP 613 and SSP 620 per US dollar in the official and parallel markets, respectively. In the other WFP-monitored markets, the average exchange rate ranged from SSP 610 to 630 per US dollar.