United Nations aid agencies are seeking more funding for their work in South Sudan after their supplies were looted or operations disrupted in violence last week in Juba, the capital.
World Food Programme has confirmed that its main warehouse was looted, while Radio Tamazuj reported that army officers and civilians were seeing carrying food away from the site.
Another agency likely to ask for more funding is the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which said on its website yesterday that violence in the country could disrupt agriculture and the economy to the extent that it results in a “hunger catastrophe.”
“During the violence that erupted last week FAO’s Juba warehouse was ransacked and stocks of essential supplies like seeds and tools earmarked to help food insecure people across the country save their livelihoods, were looted,” the website said.
FAO says its offices in South Sudan remain operational in spite of recent orders for the evacuation of ‘non-essential’ UN personnel from Juba, adding that it is currently assessing the full extent of the losses.
The group said that it will need “additional resources… to replace what was looted.”
File photo: A man with FAO supplied seeds in South Sudan