Already half rations – now the last support is being cut off in South Sudan

Mia Holmberg Karlsson/TT

Published 06.59

        

       South Sudanese internally displaced people in Akobo in Jonglei state, which has been the scene of             fierce internal fighting for the past year. Picture taken in February. Photo: Florence Miettaux/AP/TT

Now only the most vulnerable receive support – and only half rations. In just a few weeks, the food is expected to run out completely.

South Sudanese refugees have fled war and conflict, but now famine threatens instead.

– The children here have no one else but us, says WFP employee Tomson Phiri in Juba.

When South Sudan became the world's youngest nation in 2011, the future seemed promising. 15 years later, a bloody power struggle is raging that never seems to end. Millions are on the run and just as many are threatened by famine. 2.2 million children are already acutely malnourished.

“We have seen nothing but conflict in South Sudan,” says Tomson Phiri of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) by telephone from the capital Juba.

The conflict, combined with reduced international support and the thousands of refugees arriving every day from wars in neighbouring countries, has pushed the situation to the brink of disaster. Only the most vulnerable families are now receiving food and nutrition support – and then only half the rations.

End of September

Phiri and his colleagues are forced to choose between those who are starving and those who are starving.

“We reduced the rations to stretch the small resources we have as far as possible. But now our backs are against the wall. How much can you cut? There is nothing more to take away.

“It is very difficult to look a woman or a child in the eye and say: “By the way, you are not getting anything, I will give to your neighbour who seems to be on the verge of breaking.”

And it gets worse. Last week, the WFP and the refugee agency UNHCR issued a stark warning: without urgent funding, resources will run out in September. In addition to the risk of people dying of hunger, Phiri says, the consequences that are always seen in famine disasters threaten: child marriage, child labor, children being taken out of school and recruited into armed groups.

– I shudder to think about it.

Concerns about Ebola

In his work for the UN, Tomson Phiri has repeatedly spent long periods in South Sudan, including during the violent battle for Juba in 2016. He was also there when the warring factions, led by Vice President Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir respectively, solemnly signed a peace agreement in 2018. The agreement quickly fell apart and in 2025 Kiir ensured that Machar was placed under house arrest.

Since then, the violence has escalated, increasingly affecting civilians. Since January, at least 36 aid workers have also been killed, the AP news agency reported this week.

South Sudan borders eastern Congo-Kinshasa, where an ongoing Ebola outbreak has claimed thousands of lives. For aid workers, it is a source of great concern, says Tomson Phiri.

“But if you ask a South Sudanese, he will say he doesn’t care. They have other problems to deal with.”

Facts

South Sudan

South Sudan is the world’s newest country. It became independent in 2011, when what was previously called Sudan was split into a northern and a southern part.

The division, which was preceded by a dramatic referendum, created hope in South Sudan for a better life after decades of war with northern Sudan. But the period since independence has also been permeated by power struggles and civil war, with hundreds of thousands of deaths, famine, internal displacement and economic collapse.

The country has good oil resources, but as a result of widespread corruption, a majority of the people live in great poverty. An influx of refugees from Sudan in the north and Congo-Kinshasa in the south is making the situation worse.

The country's first general elections since independence are planned for December this year, an election that has been postponed several times.

South Sudan is characterized by the Nile, whose surrounding wetlands cover enormous areas. The sources of the giant river are largely located even further south in Africa, and the water then flows north through South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt.

South Sudan's almost twelve million inhabitants are dominated by so-called Nilotic ethnic groups. The capital is Juba.