Nearly 22,000 thousand displaced citizens at Kao Nyaro in Abu Jubeiha County and Werne (Verni) in Talodi County in South Kordofan State are suffering from hunger and poor health conditions, an opposition figure in the area claimed in an interview.

The mentioned villages are in isolated areas are under control of SPLM-North in south-eastern Kordofan, to the west of the Nile.

Al Haj Al Dewan, the SPLM-N Political Secretary, told Radio Tamazuj that there are about 22,000 citizens suffering from hunger and lack of health services in Kao Nyaro and Werne areas.

He described the conditions of citizens as “miserable and very difficult from the lack of food and poor health conditions,” adding that there is a sharp rise in the mortality rate among children, mothers and elderly, amid a complete absence of organizations working in the humanitarian field.

He explained that citizens at Kao Nyaro and Werne villages had been suffering since the outbreak of the war in South Kordofan on June 2011, saying that people “are eating leaves and roots of trees and use some kinds of trees as medicines.”  

Al Dewan pointed to the “complete failure” of the 2012 agricultural season making the situations difficult for villagers. He also demanded the two parties to the conflict in the state allow aid organizations to intervene to save the lives of citizens of the two mentioned areas.

“Everyday people are dying from hunger and sickness especially children and elderly,” he said.