Western Equatoria citizens are increasingly living under the threat of hunger after the food-exporting state suffered conflict earlier this year and last.
Citizens in the Maridi area say that children are increasingly at risk of malnutrition in Maridi. “It is calm here, but hunger will kill. No insecurity though,” said one local source.
The hunger is “too bad,” he complained, explaining that a cup of beans costs 80ssp, a bar of soap costs 160 SSP and a basin of maize grain is at 330ssp.”
“We are now the verge of malnutrition,” the source noted, saying that more children are recently admitted to the paediatrics ward in Maridi “since there is no nutrition program in Maridi hospital.”
“They come as sick children but in actual sense the underlying cause of most of their sicknesses is malnutrition.”
“The hospital has got nothing to offer.”
Besides the insecurity and economic reasons, another factor contributing to the hunger is a local taboo against eating cow meat in the wake of conflict last year with pastoralists.
The source explained that “cows were actually denounced by the locals last year saying the cows were the cause of conflict between them and the Dinka who tends to graze their cows on the people’s farms. In Maridi here, no butchery is functional and not even the governor can reverse the locals’ decision. If you’re suspected of eating cow meat, then you’re an enemy to the locals here.”
File photo: Tractors arriving in Maridi, March 2016