This week, South Sudan released the latest projection of Integrated food security situation in 2024, indicating a decrease in the number of people who are food insecure from the 7.4 million in 2023, to 5.83 million in 2024. On this welcome development, Oxfam in South Sudan’s country Director, Dr. Manenji Mangundu says:

“The projection of at least 5.83 million people who are food insecure as compared to 7.4 million in 2023 gives us a moment to reflect on the efforts from the different fronts to combat food insecurity. The latest projection is a clear indication that, close to 50% of the country continues to stay in need of humanitarian assistance. However, these projections fall short of considerations of nearly 400,000 people who recently fled conflicts in Sudan and parts of Ethiopia. These are people whose level of urgency goes beyond safety, as most of them fled with only the clothes on their backs. This is in addition to communities who are yet to recover from the impact of the devastation caused by floods over the previous five years.

A country should never have to rely on aid in the first place, but when situations such as floods, drought and conflict are the cause, there is no other option than to avail all opportunities to help.

Oxfam in South Sudan continues to work with communities affected by the impact of climate change – now manifesting as floods and dry spells in some parts of South Sudan, and the recent el Nino phenomenon which has caused severe changes in the rain pattern this year.

We are very hopeful that communities will proactively take chances of the prevailing peace to increase on farming and decrease on the need for more aid.

The 5.8 million people need more than food, but good governance, just society and opportunities to thrive as we promote resilience programming. Oxfam calls for collective engagements and efforts to help these people out of the current scenario. 

We are concerned that, should there be any gaps in funding and initiative to maintain peace across the country, the current gains will be entirely lost, and a relapse may be eminent.” 


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