World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Recently, after travelling on the bumpy to non-existent "roads" of South Sudan, I came away impressed -- impressed with the hopeful vision of a country that has enormous potential to move quickly into a state of relative food self sufficiency, perhaps within less than a generation. (..) While on my field visit to the Eastern and Central Equatoria states, I witnessed the collective efforts of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP), both of whom receive valuable financial support from USAID, to support the Republic of South Sudan's endeavors to tackle food insecurity through a wide range of recovery activities.

The number of civilians fleeing violence along a remote border area of South Sudan has increased over the past few days. (..) “We have continued movement of people who have fled the communal violence in and around the town of Pibor,” said David Orr, a WFP spokesperson in Nairobi.“This population seems to be moving towards the town of Boma, which is toward the Ethiopian border.” (..) We have food. It is just a matter of getting it to the people who are most in need,” he said.

Tens of thousands of people who have fled tribal violence in a remote area of South Sudan are in desperate need of food, the United Nations said on Saturday. (..) Fighting broke out last week between the Lou Nuer tribe and the rival Murle tribe in a remote area of the state of Jonglei. (..) Around 60,000 people were hiding in the bush and many had lost their settlements or grain storages, Hilde Johnson, U.N. Special Representative for South Sudan, said.

South Sudan appealed for international aid for a remote region that has been under attack by roaming fighters, as thousands of residents fled into the bush to avoid the violence. (..) It is not yet clear how many people have been killed or injured in the violence. (..) The U.N. World Food Programme has already delivered food supplies for some of the most vulnerable, including children.

The top U.N. humanitarian official has visited Sudan to discuss a growing crisis in two southern states where Khartoum has banned foreign aid groups. Valerie Amos says she has reports that food insecurity and malnutrition have reached "alarming" levels in parts of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states. (..) Amos said refugees who have fled to South Sudan and Ethiopia report the humanitarian situation is especially bad in areas held by the rebel SPLM-North group.

Red Cross volunteers are trying to reconnect 150 young children with their missing parents after tens of thousands of residents of South Sudan ran into the bush while fleeing a massive wave of tribe-on-tribe violence, an official said Tuesday. (..) Many of those parents, though, are feared to be dead. (..) The U.N. Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan estimated Tuesday that the death toll could be in the hundreds.

A UN official based in South Sudan on Tuesday told reporters here that there are many people in need of humanitarian aid after an incursion of Lou Nuer fighters into Pibor, a town in South Sudan's Jonglei state. (..) "The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) flew in the first food and distributed it to the most highly vulnerable," said Lise Grande who is UN deputy special representative of the secretary-general and resident and humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan. "In this case it was unaccompanied children and orphan children. Already today food has gotten to them, and in the course of the next week WFP is going to be providing additional support."

The World Food Program reports it is scaling up its humanitarian operation in South Sudan next year to support 2.7 million people affected by hunger and conflict. WFP says crop failure brought about by little and erratic rainfall this year is worsening food insecurity in this newly independent country. War is raging along the border between South Sudan and Sudan, its northern neighbor.   This is adding to the misery already felt by the nearly eight million people living in this newly independent state. 

WFP said it would scale up its operation to support 2.7 million hungry and conflict-affected people in 2012. Assistance will include providing highly fortified supplementary foods to more than 500,000 children, pregnant women and nursing mothers. In addition to emergency assistance, WFP will help communities and families become more self-sufficient and productive through food-for-assets activities, while laying the groundwork for other projects to build longer-term resilience.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, indicated that America would partner with the private sector to help supply advanced seeds and other technologies to boost farmers' yields in South Sudan, which she said was in need of "intensive care" from the international community. (..) However, aid agencies cautioned that the excitement about investment opportunities should not overshadow the country's immediate humanitarian needs. (..) WFP's South Sudan director, Chris Nikoi, said: "A gathering storm of hunger is approaching South Sudan, caused by crop failure and market disruption. Food prices have already doubled or tripled in some areas, leaving hundreds of thousands of young children vulnerable to malnutrition at a key developmental stage of their young lives."