The Warawar paramount chief, in Aweil East County, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, has said his people lack food and face imminent starvation because their crops were destroyed by heavy floods and fall armyworm infestation.
Paramount chief Atak Awan Anei told Radio Tamazuj over the weekend that the current flooding affected both the high and low lands rendering last year’s crop useless.
“There is insufficient grain in Warawar as a result of floods and fall armyworm,” Chief Awan said. “All high and lower lands were affected by the two issues.”
He appealed to humanitarian agencies to support his communities with food aid and seeds ahead of next year’s agricultural season.
Peter Garang, a resident of Warwar, said their crop failed but no entity has come to their aid. “We have many challenges since our crops failed and humanitarian organizations ignore some affected areas and choose others,” Garang said.
Kiir Yor Lual, the Aweil East County commissioner confirmed the crop failure and the bleak food security situation.
“Yes, that is true. There is crop failure in most areas in Aweil East County and the factors causing the failure of the crop were the fall armyworms and most of the lowlands were washed by the floods,” Commissioner Yor said.
He said he is concerned about the looming hunger because an assessment done by humanitarian organizations estimated that 19,000 extended households will be in dire need of assistance.
“There was a poor harvest in 2021 and it is one of the reasons we are worried about the hunger situation in 2022. There was an assessment carried out by the inter-agencies and the total people found affected are 19,000 households,’’ he said.
Asked if the people had received any humanitarian aid, Commissioner Yor acknowledged that the humanitarian partners distributed food rations to last three months to the affected communities.
He added that the state government bought food from neighboring Sudan but they have not been imported yet due to insecurity along the route from Sudan.