The local government of Twic County in Warrap State has appealed for relief assistance to avert starvation in the area, warning that the county’s harvests have been poor and conflict-displaced people have flooded into the county stressing food supplies.
Speaking on Sunday, Commissioner Biar Biar Riing pointed to the poor harvest last year resulting from late and unreliable rainfalls in the area. He said the food shortages were compounded by the presence of internally displaced persons living in the area from neighbouring Unity State.
Biar said thousands of internally displaced persons from the neighbouring Unity state are sharing resources with the host communities with very little support from relief organisations.
He expressed worries about famine which he said will seriously affect the population if no immediate attention is given by the state and the national governments in collaboration with the humanitarian organizations to salvage the situation.
“It will really be very important if the state and the national government act now. Because if they wait until when rains have started, it will be difficult to reach people in the low lying areas with assistances because these areas are usually cut off from the supply line by water and blocked access,” he said.
Biar explained that people tried to cultivate last year but experienced initially poor rains and then later flooding. “Rains started late. At first, there were no sufficient rains, so the crops cultivation process was affected. Later on when enough rains came, they found our crops still very young and growing, so they die in too much water. The fields got flooded with water and killed the young plants.”
He claimed his county hosts more than 5000 internally displaced persons from Unity State who have fled the clashes in the state due to the on-going war in South Sudan.
The local population has allocated farming area and contributed some agricultural land to displaced persons to enable them to cultivate, but the IDPs were discouraged by the lack of rains as well as lack of humanitarian organizations to provide food during planting season, he said.