South Sudan’s Multiple Crises Cause for Alarm, Catholic Agency Urges Quick Response

COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected at least 3,773 people and claimed 64 lives “has further worsened the situation for the people,” they further say.

Among those affected by the pandemic are school children who had to stay at home when learning institutions closed as a means of curbing the spread of the virus, the leadership of the Catholic agency says and notes that while those in the final grades have resumed classes, “many girls have been married off in the meantime and have not returned to school.” 

Though MI leadership is facilitating the provision of food for the children who have resumed school within its project areas, Mr. Hansen is concerned about other children for whom school closure not only means missing out on education but also a meal “because school meals are often their only hot meal a day.”

“To address this acute and worsening hunger crisis in South Sudan, we need to continue to scale up support - and we urgently need donations for this. Even the UN still has far too little money available to avert an impending catastrophe,” Mr. Hansen has been quoted as saying in the January 21 report.

As a long-term response to the hunger crisis, MI officials whose mandate is to provide relief and recovery during and following conflicts and disasters are set to distribute more seeds and agricultural equipment to farmers in the nine-year-old nation.

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“In the areas affected by the floods, the staff are already distributing toiletries and providing families with clean drinking water,” MI’s leadership adds in the report.

Founded in 2005, MI teams’ work of bringing aid to people regardless of their religion, background, or political convictions is founded on Christian values and humanitarian principles.

In Africa, besides South Sudan, the agency also runs programs in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).