Festus Mogae, chairman of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), a body tasked with overseeing implementation of the signed peace deal in South Sudan, says the country faces a crisis of hunger that is undermining all efforts to make peace.
Speaking during a plenary meeting in Juba today morning, Mogae said: “The mothers of South Sudan face a daily struggle with inflation, never knowing if the money in their pocket will be sufficient to feed their family. Insecurity creates food shortages, which in turn drives inflation that in turn results in hunger. A hungry man is an angry
man; and angry men do not make peace.”
“Food shortages and increasing hunger are now our immediate problems. Out in the country, beyond the reach of government, the situation is increasingly desperate. Instability and hunger has created a surge of survival-criminality that further exacerbates the problem through stealing, looting and the prevention of free-flowing commerce,” he added.
He pointed out that violence around the country is increasingly based on local decisions taken at local levels, adding that armed groups may declare an allegiance to one leader or another, but they seem no longer to take their instructions from them.
Mogae urged the unity government to ensure the safety of those who deliver humanitarian relief to the needy people across the country.
“I can only repeat that this humanitarian situation is predominantly man-made and the result of violence, conflict and the deliberate denial of access. Men, women and children are suffering and dying of starvation because the leadership at various levels is failing to
prevent it,” he said.