Aid effectiveness; Conflict; Humanitarian; Local actors; South Sudan

People in South Sudan’s Pibor county are forced to survive on wild vegetables, and desert dates as the number of people dying from starvation rises. With torrential rains halting aid flights, the situation could get much worse quickly, warned Oxfam today.  

Following the release of the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) report for South Sudan today, Elysia Buchanan, Oxfam South Sudan’s Campaign Manager said: “Despite some improvement, the scale of hunger in South Sudan is still immense with an estimated six million people facing severe hunger. The recent floods, which affected nearly a million people, are having a devastating impact on vulnerable communities already worn out by years of conflict and now the arrival of swarms of locusts could make things worse for many others.

Oxfam's new research - Our Search for Peace: Women in South Sudan’s National Peace Processes” - highlights the under-recognized but crucial role South Sudanese women played in the country's most recent national-level peace processes. With less than a month until the country forms a transitional government, South Sudanese women are demanding more leadership roles at all levels of decision making.