300 families displaced by recent fighting in Pochalla county of South Sudan’s Greater Pibor Administrative Area have not had food for nearly a month.
The people, mostly women, elderly, and children, have been sheltering at an SPLA barracks and are in urgent need of food assistance, according to Okwier Ojullo who is the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission Coordinator in GPAA.
“These people are starving because no food is being distributed to them,” another source in Pochalla said.
There are seven food stores in Pochalla full of food but there are no aid agencies to distribute as all nine relief agencies working in Pochalla County evacuated due to insecurity.
The organizations are willing to return to the county to help in food delivery but need the conflict resolved first, according to a source who works in the area.
Meanwhile, Okwier said the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service has stopped its weekly flight to Pochalla.
He added that the United Nations peacekeeping mission is considering assessing the situation in Pochalla in the coming days.
There is fear of violence in Pochalla after armed men suspected to be loyal to Pochalla South commissioner ambushed a group of guards of the Anuak King, leaving five dead and fifteen others injured.