UN plans to expand food aid to S. Sudan amid crisis

NAIROBI (Xinhua) - The UN World Food Program (WFP) said Saturday it plans to expand its emergency programs in South Sudan to reach 3.2 million people this year with urgently needed food assistance.

WFP said the expansion of food aid is based on a new analysis that the conflict in South Sudan is pushing the country toward a hunger catastrophe.

"A hunger catastrophe can still be avoided, but humanitarian agencies must be allowed to reach tens of thousands of people in need before it's too late," Mike Sackett, WFP's Country Director ad interim said in a statement received in Nairobi.

"It is absolutely critical to stop fighting and other obstacles that prevent life-saving aid deliveries."

WFP statement comes as provisional results of the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis find that food insecurity is deepening to alarming levels in areas isolated by conflict, particularly in several counties of Unity State, where up to three quarters of the population currently face severe hunger.

According to the analysis, famine is not predicted anywhere in South Sudan in the next three months, but it will become a serious risk in some areas later in the year unless adequate humanitarian assistance can be delivered.

Sackett said WFP has been able to provide food assistance to more than 700,000 people affected by the conflict in 125 locations so far, but insecurity continues to prevent or limit our access to some areas where tens of thousands of people are in desperate need.

"WFP and our humanitarian partners are doing everything we can to get urgently needed food into the worst-affected areas to help communities stave off the threat of disaster," Sackett said.

The IPC analysis was conducted by food security and humanitarian assessment specialists from a number of aid and development agencies including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, WFP and Save the Children, along with technical experts from the South Sudanese government.

The IPC analysis confirms worrying predictions made by food security teams in January and that some 3.7 million people, nearly a third of the population, are now in critical need of humanitarian assistance. The situation is most dire in the three conflict-affected states of Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile.

The UN agency said it needs significantly more donor support to continue providing food assistance to at least 3.2 million people through the end of the year.

The agency currently has a funding shortfall of $261 million and is revising its funding requirements to assist the growing number of people affected by the conflict.

WFP is using airlifts and airdrops in remote, hard-to-reach areas because of severe challenges including looting and continued fighting.