Villagers and conflict-displaced people living on the opposite bank of the Nile from Malakal are facing a critical food shortage after the government blocked deliveries of aid supplies, according to villagers from the area.
A source from Wau Shilluk said that some residents have gone to Malakal in search of food but the government closed the way to prevent them from returning with the food.
Some came into UNMISS to get some cereal and go back but the government did not want food to be taken to other side of the river, the source said. “Two weeks ago, some IDPs came in and when the government realized that they were looking for food, they closed the way,” he said.
“Villages around Malakal have no food for IDPs because government refused to open the road for example to Wau Shilluk so people are suffering indeed,” the source explained.
People in Wau Shilluk are reported to be eating grass and wild fruits for lack of food. “There is no food so people eat grass as food.”
This news comes after Doctors Without Borders (MSF) demanded access to Wau Shilluk and other areas of the west bank saying that at least 77 children with severe acute malnutrition had been left without medical care and therapeutic food.
Wau Shilluk is under the control of a Shilluk general who was loyal to the government but switched sides several months ago.
Yesterday an official working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that a hospital north of Wau Shilluk, at Kodok, was left with a serious shortage of doctors and medical personnel because ICRC staff could not safely access the area.
This month the World Food Programme confirmed that the government shut down Nile river traffic to food barges, reporting, “deliveries by river [have been] suspended by government authorities for an indefinite period.”
UNICEF also confirmed that riverside villages on the west bank were cut off, stating in a recent weekly situation report, “On-going insecurity in Upper Nile has continued to cut off humanitarian assistance to populations along the Nile, in particular on the west bank, including areas hosting large numbers of [displaced people] such as Wau Shilluk.”
File photo: A woman cooking in Turalei, Warrap, January 2014