International charity organization Oxfam on Thursday appealed for USD 30 million in funding to respond to hunger and the needs of returnees who fled the conflict in Sudan.
Addressing a press conference in Juba, Fati N`zi Hassane, Oxfam Africa director said the funding will also be used to ramp up the organization’s humanitarian response to millions of South Sudanese facing hunger as a result of climate change.
She said the humanitarian situation in South Sudan is dire with millions of South Sudanese having been forced out of their homes and livelihoods and are now forced to rely on humanitarian aid.
“Over half of the population (7.8 million) South Sudanese people are experiencing crisis level of hunger including nearly 50,000 people already facing starvation,” Hassane explained. “1.4 million children are malnourish in South Sudan as we speak and two in three people urgently need humanitarian aid.”
She noted that the situation in South Sudan has been exacerbated by the fighting in neighboring Sudan which triggered the influx of refugees and returnees.
“The fighting in the neighboring country of Sudan complicates things even further as thousands of returnees and refugees arrive daily,” Hassane said.
“The humanitarian situation in South Sudan is already overstretched,” she said. “This situation is only made worst by climate change which has made floods and droughts here and across East Africa more intense, bigger, more frequent, and less predictable.”
According to the Oxfam boss, the organization will continue mobilizing all stakeholders to bring relief and sustainable solutions to address the multifaceted crisis in South Sudan to help save lives.
“We need immediate funding to help us scale the response to the people of South Sudan as well as incoming refugees and returnees,” she appealed. “Oxfam needs USD 30 million more dollars to ramp up our humanitarian response and local organizations must have access to more funding for their crucial response.”