Concerns over fragile food situation in Bahr el Ghazal

Returnees and poor households in the southwestern Sudanese region of Bahr el Ghazal are having difficulty accessing sufficient food, an assessment report released on Monday said. As a result of the difficulties, the report warned, malnutrition levels were starting to rise in southern Sudan. "Poor households have reduced the numbers of meals they have per day to cope with the reduced food availability," the report said of areas around Aweil, the main town of Northern Bahr el Ghazal state. "The health and living condition of the IDPs [internally displaced persons] and returnees is deplorable." The assessment, carried out jointly by UN agencies, NGOs and Sudanese authorities in both government-controlled and former-rebel-controlled areas between March and April 2005, aimed to estimate the effects of increased returns into South Sudan, in light of poor agricultural production in 2004. "We are getting reports of pockets of malnutrition. This is the start of the hunger season, and many roads will soon be cut off because of the rainy season," Peter Smerdon, a spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), told IRIN on Tuesday. "It is only going to get worse, especially in Bahr el Ghazal," he added. Food security in Northern Bahr el Ghazal had become fragile due to shortages of off-farm food resources and the exhaustion of other dry-season livelihood options, the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS Net) said in its South Sudan Food Security Warning Report, which was issued on 20 May. It warned of "an extended and more difficult hunger season, especially in [the] Bahr el Ghazal region.” The report explained that "[a]lthough better-off households should be able to meet their food needs until the next harvest, poor households will face significant food gaps between May and August." In addition to substantial reductions in fish and wild foods on which households typically rely between January and May, "last year’s sorghum harvest was poor in many areas, and the large number of empty-handed returnees increases the pressure on tight local resources," FEWS Net said. According to the latest estimates, 209,000 IDPs and refugees had been registered by the UN Sustainable Returns Team as they returned to South Sudan between January and April 2005. About 102,000 returnees and IDPs escaping the violence in Darfur had come to Bahr el Ghazal between January and March. During 2004, below-average seasonal rainfall affected agricultural production. Crop yields were below normal, and the lack of traditional annual flooding had severely diminished water supplies, fish stocks and pastureland. Consequently, the assessment found that there were increased localised conflicts related to scarce water and grazing resources. Agriculture is the backbone of the economy in the region, and 95 percent of the population relies on subsistence farming for their livelihood. The report stated that 2004-2005 was the worst year in terms of cereal production in the last 10 years. Because transport and market infrastructures were rudimentary and had limited the movement of food surpluses to the deficit areas, the poor harvest had led to "extremely high retail cereal prices", the report added. Most communities have marginal coping capacities and sharply deteriorated food security as a result of the extended hardship caused by years of conflict and a lack of rural development. Almost all IDPs and returnees were engaged in the collection and sale of firewood, charcoal, grasses and construction material as a means to earn some additional income, which triggered a fall in prices for these commodities. Most of the communities that were interviewed identified food, seeds and farm implements, healthcare and water as their main assistance priorities. Immediate interventions were needed to improve and stabilize the current food-security situation, and the report urgently recommended humanitarian food and non-food assistance through August and September. "The most worrying thing is the hot-spots of malnutrition," Smerdon said, adding that WFP was supporting supplementary and therapeutic feeding centres, run by NGOs, that were targeting the most vulnerable members of the population - children under five and nursing mothers. Urgent action on health and hygiene education, particularly supporting the local community in construction of household latrines, education facilities, provision of clean water, medication and health services, was also needed. The food-security situation needed to be continuously monitored over the coming months and - depending on the emerging situation - immediate interventions might have to be undertaken. "It is likely that in the unfortunate event of yet another below average agricultural season, the food security implications could be catastrophic," the assessment report warned. Bahr el Ghazal suffered a severe famine in 1998. At the time, FEWS Net estimated that approximately 220,000 people were affected and 70,000 perished.