The inhabitants of Tiaptiap Payam in the north of Cueibet County in Lakes State are going hungry due to poor rainfall, insecurity and high food prices, residents said.
Chok Lieny, a resident of Cueibet County, told Radio Tamazuj over the weekend that poor rains have exacerbated the only fragile food security situation in the area.
“It is not raining properly in Cueibet to allow people to cultivate and community duty prices in the market are too high, and the people cannot afford to buy food, and the third issue is insecurity in Tiaptiap Payam,” he said.
The Tiaptiap Payam administrator, Ruben Abiel, confirmed people from 13 villages bordering Tonj East County in Warrap State were displaced when armed youth from Tonj East attacked a place called Jooch and burned down about 68 houses.
“Some of the displaced people were resettled in a village called Ciyar and some settled in Malual and those IDPs are 1,326 people and their situation is still very bad at the moment because they are hungry and they depend on trees leaves which they collect from the forest to feed their children,” he said.l “My directive to them is to share the small resources they have, like the milk from cows. The community chiefs should distribute some milk to the small children who are not able to eat wild leaves which the elderly people feed on.”
According to Abiel, humanitarian organizations and the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) but t have since not returned.
“The displaced people are waiting for the NGOs and government to respond,” he said. “Their houses were burned and they have no shelter and are living under the trees and others are being housed by relatives.”
“So, they (IDPs) need plastic sheets and food if possible,” Abiel added.