Highlights
The Government of Sudan's military offensive in Leech State (Upper Nile Region) is deeply disturbing given that populations in the affected areas were already highly food insecure. This follows successive years of poor yields and limited access to other food options due to civil insecurity.
Physical insecurity is exacerbating food insecurity and remains a major threat in parts of Upper Nile, Bahr-el-Ghazal and Eastern Equatoria Regions. Poor food availability in affected areas will persist before it dissipates with the harvests in July/August, security allowing.
The below-normal rains anticipated for the pastoral areas of Eastern Equatoria and Jonglei Regions during the March -- May period does not augur well for livestock productivity and pastoral livelihoods.
Despite the increase in crop production in 2001/02 compared to 2000/01, there still remains a critical need for seeds and tools to support agricultural production. The timing of the input distributions or acquisition by the farmers will be crucial to ensure the process is not hampered by the rains and that farmers take full advantage of the rains onset.
Upward revision of planned amounts of food aid amounts may be necessary if physical insecurity with resultant displacements persist in areas already affected. Food aid remains the only short term solution to maintaining minimum levels of food access in these areas.
1. Food Security Conditions and Prospects
1.1 Overview of Current Food Security Status
Food availability in the surplus producing areas of Western Equatoria Region is currently good. However, CARE International notes that the more than 20,000 IDPs in Tambura County have put considerable strain on the local food security support systems. Food aid distributions by WFP are mitigating the IDPs food insecurity.
In contrast, field reports indicate declining or exhausted household food stocks in the other regions. While poor harvests last year with minimal carryover stocks into 2002 is a factor, physical insecurity is exacerbating the food insecurity and remains a major threat in Upper Nile, Bahr-el-Ghazal and Eastern Equatoria Regions. As the hunger period draws near, poor food availability is expected to persist in many of the already affected areas before it dissipates with the harvests in July/August, security allowing.
1.2 Worsening Food Security Crises
The massive Government of Sudan (GoS) offensive in the northern part of Leech State featured prominently in Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) emergency meetings in late February/early March. Field reports indicate that the offensive
seems to be aimed at clearing the area around the oilfields of any populations. The northern parts of Leech State have experienced intermittent incidences since 1999. Consequently, populations have been severely displaced, loosing most of their assets, including livestock and varieties of local seed. In addition, there has been progressive reduction in farm sizes as agricultural activities are grossly hampered. This has resulted in reduced yields over the years. In normal years (prior to 1999), assessments by the WFP/Technical Support Unit revealed that the contribution of own crops to household food needs was up to 50 percent. The 2001/02 Annual Needs Assessment (ANA) revealed that there has been a significant reduction in the contribution of own crops to 15-20 percent for the poor group and 20-25 percent for the middle and rich groups.
Given people's physical insecurity for the better part of last year, the poor yields and subsequent minimal carryover, the food security situation was already precarious even before the current offensives. The new attacks have resulted in the looting and burning of already small food stocks and precluded access to some of the other food sources such as fish and wild foods. The attack denials by the Government of Sudan have further exacerbated the grave situation as delivery of humanitarian assistance in the form of food and non-food items to needy populations is not safe. Field reports further indicate that people are hiding to protect themselves from the helicopter gunship raids and are unlikely to risk their lives to receive assistance even if access was possible to allow distributions to take place.
A similar emergency has been reported in Ruweng County as well. Consequently, local and International agencies operating in these areas are already involved in lobbying and advocacy initiatives to ensure pressure is put on the Government of Sudan to stop the atrocities. If this is not stopped immediately, it is feared that the lives of an estimated 300,000 people would be at risk. Contingency and rapid assessment plans are already in place and ACF-USA, MEDAIR, OXFAM-UK, UNICEF and WFP will be involved in field assessments once reasonable security and access permit.
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