A senior government official has described as “shocking” the humanitarian situation in South Sudan’s Kapeota State.
The state humanitarian affairs minister, Jennifer Nabongorika told Radio Tamazuj Monday although people lack food, no death was reported.
She said some implementing partners, supported by World Food Programme (WFP), registered few vulnerable groups to cope with the crisis.
“Of course the humanitarian situation is only the hunger. We have hunger, but registration is now going on and they are not targeting everybody. It is only the vulnerable people and you find that their numbers are high but the card cannot cover all,” she said.
According to the minister, last year’s unreliable rainfall has put the lives of the predominantly cattle keeping community in danger.
“So that is the situation here, but people are pushing life like that. We expect rain to come such that people can cultivate,” she added.
The official expressed concerns that less than 5,000 people were targeted in the state, despite the large numbers of hungry people.
She, however, urged humanitarian partners to increase the numbers to be targeted to cover at least majority of the vulnerable people.
“They only target vulnerable people, the very vulnerable people like old men, old women, pregnant women and the disabled. So you find this is a challenge because not all vulnerable people are targeted because the cards are not many,” explained the minister.
“We sometimes urge them to increase food so that it can cover at least a good number of vulnerable people like about 1,000 for Kapoeta South and another 1,000 for Kapoeta North,” she added.
Kapeota State is located in the Equatoria region and it borders Torit to the west, Boma to the north, Ethiopia to the east, and Kenya and Uganda to the south.