Starvation as a Weapon of War

The civil war in South Sudan has been going on for five years. In those five years the citizens of Sudan have suffered in many aspects. They have left their homes to flee the fighting, yet death and danger still follow them everywhere. It seems like history is repeating itself and more people are dying of starvation and malnutrition by the day just like the famine of 1988.

It has been estimated that 1.25 million people in South Sudan are on the verge of starvation according to the latest food and security analysis update by the UN and South Sudan’s National Bureau of Statistics, released in November. People walk for miles to get food and are unable to find it anywhere to the point that the only thing they could find to eat are water lily roots just to keep them alive. Children as young as 4 months are dying of malnutrition and starvation is predicted to increase.

The government plays a major role in this famine. It has denied the South Sudanese people access to fields that they used to work on and where they used to get food. While the towns are controlled by the government, they are surrounded by the rebels. Therefore, the people are trapped in a prison where whatever food they can find is stolen from them by soldiers. Despite the army denying such allegations and calling it “negative propaganda”, it’s hard to believe when the effect of such actions is so drastic and long-lasting.

The leaders have put the priority of the government over the priority of the people. They are using starvation as a weapon of war. By bombing areas where they grow food, it’s impossible for them grow food or find it anywhere since aid is cut off in some places. South Sudan lacks roads in many areas which makes it even harder to get food from other places. This way they are just wiping out the population because the only thing left for them is starvation.

Starvation and malnutrition are critical issues in almost all the South Sudanese refugee camps. Most of the refugees have fled to countries like Uganada, Ethopia and Kenya. Most of which are developing countries; therefore, there are not enough resources to finance those camps and provide them with the needed nutrition and services.

The starvation problem in South Sudanese refugee camps everywhere cannot simply be solved by aid. While aid definitely helps keep them alive, it does not stop there. The only way to end this famine is for the fighting to stop. Despite constant pressures on the government by a lot of countries to stop fighting, it seems that the leaders of both sides choose to turn a blind eye to the crisis. Therefore, even with aid provided, the problem is only intensifying, and life is getting harder for the South Sudanese people.

REFERENCES:

Lainya, Sam Mednick in. "'Hunger Is Killing Me': Starvation as a Weapon of War in South Sudan | Sam Mednick." The Guardian. January 10, 2018. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jan/10/brink-starvation-south-sudan-equatoria.

"Operational Portal." Accessed February 28, 2019. https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/southsudan.

"Sudan: Food Becomes a Weapon of War." Public Radio International. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-03-29/sudan-food-becomes-weapon-war.