Critical conditions in northern Bahr el Ghazal, Western Upper Nile

WFP on Friday launched a US $58 million international appeal to feed 1.7 million people, the majority of them in southern Sudan, until the end of the year. Despite an improved nutritional situation in the country generally, "hundreds of thousands of southern Sudanese are still at risk of hunger and malnutrition" as a result of war, drought and floods, according to WFP Country Director Mohamed Saleheen. In places where the rains have been ideal for cultivation, insecurity had driven people from
their homes and fields, and, where the food needs were greatest, a combination of insecurity and humanitarian flight denials had made it difficult to secure access to populations in need, WFP added.

The situation was most critical in northern Bahr el Ghazal and Western Upper Nile, the agency said. Conditions in Aweil West in northern Bahr el Ghazal were "desperate" and "rapidly worsening" due to a combination of militia raids, internal displacement and exceptional flooding in low-lying areas. Insecurity along the railway line which links the government-held garrisons of Wau and Aweil, was also plaguing people in Aweil West. Latest
reports from the field indicated that up to 40,000 people had fled the region to neighbouring Bahr el Ghazal in the past few months, with many eking out a living in malarial swamps east and west of the towns of Koch and Nyal. Some 250,000 people in Western Upper Nile - half the population of the area - would need food aid this year, according to the WFP report.

"While conflict continues, conditions for a return to famine remain an ever-present spectre," it added.