Government representatives met to discuss South Sudan’s worsening humanitarian crisis at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Thursday, March 23.
The United Nations has declared a famine in some parts of South Sudan, where nearly half the population—some 5.5 million people—face food shortages.
A civil war erupted in 2013 when President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy, Riek Machar, a Nuer, who has fled and is now in South Africa. The United Nations said at least one-quarter of South Sudanese have been displaced.
The Security Council said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned about the actions of all parties to the conflict that are perpetuating the humanitarian crisis.”
South Sudan Deputy Ambassador Joseph Mourn Majak Ngor Malok, said, “The government takes issue with accusations that it is responsible for it (famine). It is also important to note that other parts of the country are affected by drought as a result of climate change.” He called for assistance from the international community to address the urgent situation.
Deputy U.S. Ambassador Michele Sison warned South Sudan’s government that preventing humanitarian aid workers from reaching parts of the war-torn state that are suffering famine could “amount to deliberate starvation tactics.”
“The famine is not a result of drought. It is the result of leaders more interested in political power and personal gain than in stopping violence and allowing humanitarian access,” Sison told the Security Council.
President Kiir’s government recently increased foreign work permit fees a hundredfold to $10,000. According to The Times, government ministers commented that South Sudan’s rates had previously been the lowest in the region and that the changes may allow aid agencies to hire more local workers.
