Finn Church Aid (FCA) handed over twelve classrooms to the government authorities in the Greater Pibor area in late May. FCA ensures quality education through training teachers and involving parents.
Stella Boyoi teaches mathematics to children in the newly built classroom. Photo: Kajasuk Jackson
Finn Church Aid and local authorities completed a mayor achievement in the education of children in the Greater Pibor Area with the handover of five classroom blocks, consisting of twelve classrooms.
The project’s aim was to improve access to quality education in most remote communities in Pibor and Gumuruk, locations that were marginalised and neglected for long due to conflict.
In addition to the classrooms, FCA trained 88 members in Parent-Teacher Associations to support school functions, 10 county education staff in management and 60 volunteer teachers in pedagogy and psychosocial support. Thanks to public awareness campaigns, the project reached 4 106 children.
Stella Boyoi is one of the newly recruited volunteer teachers in Langachod Primary School. According to Boyoi, there were no good school structures in Pibor in the past.
Parents are now encouraged to send their children back to school after a long period of instability.
“Before, children were learning under trees and ran home whenever it started raining”, she says.
Safe and inclusive education for girls and boys
Boyoi believes that the brand new classrooms themselves, with benches and desks, attract children to participate in lessons and help them stay attentive throughout the school days. FCA has provided exercise books, chalks and chalkboards, as well as incentives for the volunteer teachers to ensure quality education.
Parent-Teacher Associations play an important part in managing the schools. The members received agricultural tools, seeds and trainings to generate income and thus support the schools financially.
Mary Paul, 11, says she feels safe in the new school block in Langachod. Photo: Kajasuk Jackson
Boyoi hopes that families also send their daughters to school. In the local culture, it has been common that parents expect girls to do domestic work and marry at an early age.
Attitudes are slowly changing with improved access to education and the opportunities it brings for the future of the children.
“I decided to become a teacher because I want to change our community through education. As a woman, I also want to be a role model for all the young girls”, Boyoi says.
11-year-old Mary Paul is the second youngest of four sisters. Her eldest sister did not go to school, but Mary now has an opportunity to participate because the new structures are close to her home.
“I joined school because it is now near to my home, and I don’t have to fear to come to school alone”, she says.
Text: Kajasuk Jackson, Erik Nyström
Read more about Finn Church Aid’s work in South Sudan here.
In South Sudan, the price of food claims people’s lives as well as guns. Hunger staggers society, with people only focused on where to get their next meal.
When you throw a seed in the ground, it grows into a giant mango tree.
This is a saying from South Sudanese Equatoria, the breadbasket of the country. The soil is so fertile that crops grown in the region have fed millions of South Sudanese people. Practically all of South Sudan is a perfect seedbed for produce such as rice, corn, millet, sugar cane, and fruits.
However, war has driven three quarters of the region’s population out of their homes, and vast cultivated areas stand abandoned, says Marie Makweri, who worked in South Sudan for three years as Finn Church Aid’s (FCA) peace coordinator.
The dramatic consequences are seen in the availability and prices of food products. People are lucky to have even one meal a day. Anyone knows that hunger makes a person ill-tempered. Hunger makes the prolonged conflict even worse.
”People in South Sudan say that there are more weapons than food, which is a dangerous combination. A person with no food to feed oneself or one’s family thinks of all the ways in the world to get food,” says Makweri.
5 million people still on the brink of famine
In February 2017, UN declared a famine in Unity State, located in the middle of South Sudan. About 100,000 people were in danger of starving to death. The declaration was followed by an extensive humanitarian operation, during which food ration packages were dropped in the region from World Food Program (WFP) helicopters. FCA contributed to the food aid from its disaster fund.
In June, the famine was officially over, but the daily life of the South Sudanese people did not improve in any significant way. For famine to be declared, the situation has to meet clearly defined criteria. First, a fifth of households must suffer from an extreme lack of food, and a third of the population must be acutely malnourished. In addition, people die at a certain rate – the definition of famine calls for two victims per day for every 10,000 inhabitants.
Famine is equivalent to the highest category on a UN scale of 1 to 5 measuring food security. The current situation does not meet the criteria. On the other hand, 1.5 million people live in a state of emergency (stage 4) and 3.6 million in acute food shortage (stage 3). In other words, there are 5 million South Sudanese people on the brink of famine.
”When you’re there observing the situation, it makes no real difference if people are at stage 4 or 5. The food situation remains extremely difficult”, says Makweri.
Food prices increased tenfold
FCA supports peace and food security
FCA supports peace processes, education and opportunities for subsistence in South Sudan. FCA trainings teach skills such as baking and handling food and dairy products, which improves food production.
Since last fall, FCA has carried out a food security project with 100,000 euros from a disaster collection. The project involves farming training for 500 farmers, and participants in the training are provided with seeds and tools.
The South Sudan food crisis is the result of a prolonged conflict. The conflict began as a power struggle between president Salva Kiir and former vice president Riek Machar. The rivalry turned into war with ethnic battle lines. Kiir represents the Dinka tribe, the biggest tribe in South Sudan, and Machar is from the Nuer tribe, the second biggest.
The conflict is rooted in a dispute over resources after South Sudan gained independence in 2011 – land ownership, water, and oil. Kiir accused Machar of an attempted coup and dismissed him. There are other tribes in South Sudan as well, coaxed into alliance or played against each other. In the autumn of 2016, UN issued a warning of a possible genocide.
Fear has had catastrophic repercussions on food production. Farmers are too afraid to sow or harvest their crops. Food deliveries have become difficult, and prices at marketplaces have risen sky-high. After the fighting that started in July 2016, the price of a 3,5-kilo sack of maize meal in the capital Juba rose from 5,5 euros to 60 euros. The price is equivalent to a month’s average wages in South Sudan.
Even the prices of basic vegetables, such as tomatoes, have increased tenfold, and further from the capital, prices are even higher. Tea, sugar, and meat are luxury products that have become completely nonexistent.
The effects are seen on the street, says Makweri, who lived in Juba up until the turn of the year. Shopkeepers cannot afford to buy expensive food products and sell them at a profit, so many grocery stores have closed. Even bigger marketplaces have less items to sell, and fewer and fewer vendors selling them.
”Ordinary people can’t afford food,” says Makweri.
Food aid keeps people sane
In her work, Makweri has seen people’s preoccupation with food. Motivating them to participate in peace processes takes patience when their foremost concern is where to get the next meal for their family.
”People find it hard to even think about the next day, let alone the long-term effects of peace. They’re thinking about the next minute that they might as well use to get food.”
On the other hand, the food situation will not improve in any significant way until the conflict ends. South Sudan has all the prerequisites for self-sufficient food production, provided that peace can be achieved in the country. Food aid supported by the international community is keeping the negotiations alive.
”The message of the South Sudanese people is unanimous: the food aid should under no circumstances be discontinued. It keeps people alive and sane, and literally gives the strength to believe in peace.”
Text: Erik Nyström
Read more about about Finn Church Aid’s work in South Sudan here.
The greatest fear of Muja Rose, a refugee from South Sudan, is that her daughter will starve to death. Uganda is at a breaking point in the throes of the biggest refugee crisis in Africa since the Rwanda genocide.
The children were playing when war found the family of 34-year-old Muja Rose in South Sudan.
Government soldiers arrived without warning in their hometown of Kajo Keji. They were immediately caught by surprise by a group of rebels. People were killed and their possessions were looted.
Rose’s husband was away, and in the crossfire, Rose made the toughest decision of her life.
”The only alternative was to run as fast as my feet would carry. I decided to take the children to Uganda,” says Rose.
Rose managed to take her own four children as well as two children who had lost their mother with her. She carried the youngest one on her back through the bush and stayed up all night to protect the children from wild animals. They had no food or water.
”The children were crying out of hunger and exhaustion. When we found a dry streambed, I tried to dig for water in the ground to have drinking water for the children.”
Food is a constant preoccupation
A year later, all the children are seated around a clay oven in the Bidibidi refugee settlement. The area, the size of Turku, has 290,000 inhabitants, which would make it the second biggest city in Finland after Helsinki.
The clay oven is located in the only shaded spot in the yard, and attracts others to seek shelter from the relentless sun. The aroma from the sizzling pot is familiar from any kitchen in the world: fried onions.
Rose chops a few eggplants from her vegetable garden and adds them to the pot, with 10-year-old Ayite stirring the stew.
”Once a week we cook eggplants, once okra, once vegetables. The remaining days we eat beans,” says Rose.
”The food has no variety and the children are sick all the time. They’re not getting all the vitamins they need.”
Food is constantly on Rose’s mind. Even though the demanding journey to Uganda has reduced the risk of becoming victim to bullets or rape, life is a taxing struggle to meet basic needs. She is not alone in this situation.
Over a million people from South Sudan have crossed the border to Uganda, almost all of them after July 2016.
Some refugees are lucky to have chicken that produce eggs. Most, like Muja Roses family, have left behind all their possessions when fighting broke out. Photo: Tatu Blomqvist
Taking care of the crisis costs about 560 million euros per year, but the international community has only met a third of the need. According to the UN, Uganda is at a breaking point. The refugees most feel this in the food rations that have been halved twice, says Bik Lum, regional head of UN refugee agency UNHCR.
The food aid delivered monthly includes beans, vegetable oil, salt, and maize meal. At the end of last year, the maize meal rations were cut from 12 kilos to 6 kilos per person.
”Some have risked their lives and gone to South Sudan to look for food in their abandoned homes,” says Lum.
One meal a day
Uganda, a country smaller and poorer than Finland, has despite its limited resources admitted all refugees into the country.
The Ugandan refugee policy is praised as forward thinking in the western world, since among other things, it guarantees everyone a piece of land to live on and cultivate. This does not mean that life in refugee settlements feels meaningful.
More land has continuously been cleared from previously unliveable bush, and growing things to eat is hard.
Rose’s yard is rocky, but as a woman with green fingers, she has managed to grow something. So has Wani Garanep, living in the neighbouring village, who participated in Finn Church Aid’s (FCA) cultivation training.
FCA has provided participants with seeds and tools. Sesame, okra, and tomatoes are growing next to Garanep’s clay hut. Since the ground is rocky, Garanep and his wife Kaku have learned to fill sacks with dirt. Onions and eggplants are growing in these sacks.
Wani Garanep’s family has managed to diversify their diets with vegetables after participating in FCA’s livelihoods training. Photo: Tatu Blomqvist
However, because of slashed food rations, the family has been forced to cut their daily meals from two to one. This goes for most of Bidibidi’s inhabitants.
”I would like to guarantee a good education for my children, but they can’t concentrate in school when they’re hungry, and they often come home before the school day is over,” says Garanep.
Garanep is a builder by trade. In South Sudan, he cut down trees and sold them as building material. The family could afford to eat meat.
Rose worked as a teacher, and the family had no shortage of food.
The hometown she left behind, Kajo Keji, was located in Equatoria, the breadbasket of South Sudan, known for its fertile soil. Before the war, the region was able to feed millions of people. Rose’s family had goats and chickens.
”When the children were hungry, they would pick fruit or cassava from our garden,” she says.
However, Kajo Keji is empty. Three quarters of the population of Equatoria have left their homes and Northwest Uganda is like one big refugee settlement that it takes hours to drive through.
Here, Garanep and Rose find it hard to find work with which to improve their families’ situation.
”Sometimes when the children are really hungry, they ask me ’mom, can’t we go back home to South Sudan so that we could eat.’ It’s hard to explain to them that there is still a war going on there,” continues Rose.
Life as a single parent is tough
After the meal, things get more active in the yard. With 13-year-old Gire and 9-year-old Diko in the lead, the children dig out a skipping rope. With great enthusiasm, Ayite counts her skips in English. This makes her mother happy.
They are more eager than usual because there are visitors, she explains. When the children are quiet and too tired to play, it is time to worry, she says.
Gire and Diko are not Rose’s own children, but after their flight together, they sleep together with Rose’s children.
”Sometimes they ask me where their mother is. Once the war is over, we will return to look for her.”
Life as a single parent is especially hard in the refugee settlement. Over 60 percent of the refugees in Uganda are under 18 years old, and most of the adults are women. When women and children fled, men took part in the fights – some forced, others voluntarily – or died in the conflicts.
In Rose’s yard, it is evident that she has to keep an eye on more than a dozen children, with barely no other parents in sight. Rose often worries about how long she will manage if the situation is prolonged.
”I miss my husband. I don’t know whether he’s alive or dead. I haven’t heard from him since we had to run away,” she says.
During the interview, Rose mends the trousers of her youngest child, 3-year-old Wani. They have to be taken in at the waist once again. Rose is most worried about 10-year-old Ayite, who has gone down from 25 kilos a year ago to just 19 kilos.
Being underweight makes Ayite vulnerable to disease and malnutrition.
”If she loses more weight, I might even lose her,” says Rose.
Text: Erik Nyström, photos: Tatu Blomqvist
This year, 60 percent of the funds collected in the Common Responsibility Campaign are directed to the Finn Church Aid disaster fund. Read more about FCA in Uganda here.
FCA and the European Union construct 28 blocks of 84 classrooms, 28 blocks of 140 stances of inclusive gender-segregated pit latrines and 40 teachers houses in Bidibidi and Omugo refugee settlements to ensure a safe and inspiring learning environment for South Sudanese refugees.
The cheers from Para elementary school travel a great distance from the schoolyard. Classes finish at 16.00 and the children from grades 5 and 6 are on their way home.
After a day of intensive learning, their minds are
set on future goals. A group of seven friends do not need much time to consider their favourite subjects, when asked. The answer is science and math.
“I want to become an engineer, so that I could for instance design and implement a water supply system at the refugee settlements”, says 16-year-old John.
Same-aged Mary would consider a career as an accountant because she likes to play with numbers, while Emmanuel, 17, longs to be a pilot or driver because he wants to explore the world.
16-year-old Scovia reminds that English is important whatever your dreams might be.
“I would like to become a nurse so that I could help sick people”, she adds.
Additional semi permanent classroom at Para Primary School.
21 000 pupils benefit from improved access to quality education
Over 60 percent of the arrivals from South Sudan are children under 18 years old. When arrivals peaked following the eruption of violence in Juba in 2016, it took months for most to continue their education in Uganda. Temporary structures, primarily tents, were set up in the settlements to meet the urgent needs.
Today, children usually resume their studies within days after their arrival, and efforts have focused on upgrading the temporary structures to semi-permanent classrooms of concrete from which refugees benefit. The tents are hot during summers and vulnerable to extreme weather conditions.
FCA is set to complete 28 blocks of 84 classrooms by January 2018 with EU humanitarian funding. The cooperation improves the learning environment in 7 schools in Bidibidi, one of the world’s largest refugee settlements and 6 schools in Omugo settlement, established in August. When finished, FCA’s and the European Union’s project will immediately benefit around 21 000 pupils.
At Para Primary School, the first two blocks of six classrooms and one block of latrines are finished, and the last part of the construction is well on its way.
“The learning centres are established with a high priority not only because of the importance of education, but as a safe space for children and youth”, Denis Okullu, coordinator of the project explains.
Training of teachers key to learning
The cooperation between the European Union and FCA also extends to the teachers, who have more than 1 500 pupils to care for at Para Primary School. One essential training of Teachers in crisis contexts addresses the challenge in dealing with such a large number of students.
“We use a lot of group work and working in pairs in order to manage the situation”, Andero Kasifa says.
A total of 237 teachers are to receive the training and Kasifa is one of them. The project also works on accommodation for the teachers, prepares them for work with children in a crisis context as well as involves parents in supporting a safe and productive learning environment.
Especially children who have been years out of school require attention in order to get back on track. A placement test decides their initial level, and through a process of accelerated learning, they can catch up and complete for instance three grades within one school year.
“The skills we learn help us to help them complete their primary level education”, Kasifa says.
Additional classroom under construction in Luzira primary school with funding EU humanitarian funding.
Despite increasing attention to the severe refugee situation in Uganda, the international community has done little to ease the crisis as it reaches a grim milestone. This is what’s going on.
1. Uganda is home to more refugees than any other country in Africa
With 1,3 million refugees by August 2017, Uganda hosts one of the largest refugee populations in the world. The reason behind the severe influx is the conflict in South Sudan. Each day an average of thousands of refugees have crossed the border to Uganda since fighting re-erupted in the capital Juba in July 2016. Within the region, Uganda has received the highest number of South Sudanese refugees, now one million.
The number of internally displaced people included, four million South Sudanese have left their homes, and this makes it one of the largest refugee crises globally. Only Syria and Afghanistan are producing more refugees.
2. An overwhelming majority of the South Sudanese refugees are women and children
More than 85 percent of the South Sudanese refugees in Uganda are women and children, who have traveled by foot to escape a devastating civil war. According to their stories, adult males – brothers, fathers and husbands – have been killed, captured or recruited by armed groups. Opportunities for education and livelihoods are therefore extremely important for this refugee population.
61 percent of the South Sudanese refugees who have arrived since July 2016 are children under 18 years old. Having access to protective and quality education is an essential part of the rehabilitation process for these children whose childhood has been cut short through horrific experiences while fleeing their homes. The provision of education to these children does not only give them hope for a better future, but it also affirms them that their futures are worth believing in.
3. Uganda is at a breaking point
Uganda has one of the most progressive refugee policies in the world. After registration, refugees have the right to study, work, set up enterprises and move freely within the country – all the same rights as native Ugandans apart from the right to vote. Refugees also receive a plot of land at the refugee settlements for cultivation.
But Uganda is also one of the world’s poorest countries. The pace of arrivals has been tough to keep up with, and the UN has warned that Uganda is at a “breaking point”.
4. Uganda needs international support to maintain its transformational refugee policies
Uganda needs the support of the international community to keep . The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR says it needs around 570 million euros to ensure minimum humanitarian standards are met properly, but this far it has received only 17 percent of it.
The funding gap delays projects like providing permanent shelters by months and people are vulnerable to changing weather conditions. Children attend schools in temporary tents, easily taken down and destroyed by high winds and rains. Food rations have been cut several times and creating new plots for farming is an enormous task as new settlements open.
Text: Erik Nyström
Finn Church Aid supports education and livelihood opportunities for refugees in Uganda. Read more about our work here. Read an interview with Uganda’s refugee commissioner here.
FCA builds temporary learning spaces in South Sudan in order to improve access to quality education for children and youth in Fangak County. Armed conflict and logistical complications, like fuel shortages, have delayed the implementation of the project.
Before the conflict Fangak County had 30 schools. Three out of four were destroyed during fighting, and around 40 per cent of the students haven’t attended school since. Most schools are run under trees.
On average, children walk 35 minutes to school. On the extreme, some children have to walk for an estimated 3 hours to reach the nearest school, contributing to fatigue and high dropout rates.
FCA is now addressing the issue through the construction of ten temporary learning spaces that are located in the payams of Old New Fangak, New Fangak, Toch, Pulita, Manajang and Barboi – all within Fangak County.
The project also aims to provide children in 16 schools with learning materials. Currently only 30 per cent of the students have access to such.
Education services will be improved through intensive teacher training, mentoring and active participation of communities. Parent-Teachers Associations (PTAs) are involved in improving the education infrastructure, including construction of gender-segregated latrines and hand washing facilities, through a cash-for-work component.
Teachers are trained and mentored on teaching methods, child-protection, as well as psycho-social support, while PTAs will be trained in school administration and how to practically apply a child rights approach to administrative structures and school design.
The initial plan was to build semi-permanent learning spaces, but transporting building materials became increasingly difficult because of practicalities like the fuel shortage in Juba early this year. Boats became stranded for weeks and the lack of fuel limited the movement of goods and project staff as well.
FCA solved the issues by resorting to the use of locally available materials. This resulted in a significant reduction in building costs, which translates to three more temporary learning spaces than initially planned being constructed.
In Uganda, refugees are immediately granted the right to education and work, says Ugandan Refugee Commissioner David Apollo Kazungu. He is coordinating Uganda’s response to Africa’s largest refugee crisis.
In 2016, more refugees crossed the border to Uganda than crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Their numbers totalled in over one million. Most came from South Sudan, which is where the largest refugee crisis in Africa originates.
Thus far, Uganda has succeeded relatively well in a situation that has driven Europe into turmoil. We interviewed Ugandan Refugee Commissioner David Apollo Kazungu on the Ugandan refugee policy.
How is Uganda managing the refugee situation?
“We have extensive experience in accepting refugees and many of our former and current government officials have been refugees at one point. The rights of refugees have been anchored in our legislation and in the founding principles of the UN, written out in the New York Declaration of the United Nations. The refugees are also an important part of the Ugandan national development plan. We treat them as an opportunity rather than a threat.”
What actually happens when refugees arrive into the country?
“Immediately after registration the refugees are given the right to study, work, set up enterprises and move freely within the country. They are also given a plot of land on the refugee settlements for cultivation. They have all the same rights as native Ugandans apart from the right to vote.
In my opinion, it is crucially important to invest in the education of refugees, because it empowers them. It will also serve them when they return to their home country. We have seen how education changes people.”
What is the role of Finn Church Aid in Uganda?
“Finn Church Aid has supported education in emergencies and also organises vocational education. For the refugees it is extremely important, because it provides them with practical, professional skills, and Uganda in turn benefits from their employment.”
Is Uganda ever consulted for advice in refugee matters?
“Yes. The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR has stated that our approach could serve as an example for the entire world. We have exchanged ideas with and answered questions from many other countries, and have had observers visit from Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Zambia.”
Since July 2016, thousands of refugees have arrived in Uganda every day. How serious is the situation in your estimate?
“We are working with the refugees with very scarce resources. Our approach requires sustainable funding from the international community (last year, only 40% of the required 250 million dollar funding was covered). Uganda is committed to keeping its borders open to refugees, and the international community must, for their part, make sure that there are sufficient resources available to guarantee these people a chance for a life with dignity even as refugees.”
What motivates you in your work?
“Working for humanity, and the fact that I can, for my part, somehow respond to humanitarian needs.”
Et ole hyväksynyt markkinoinnin evästeitä nähdäksesi videon.
A vehicle belonging to a national non-governmental organisation fell into a deadly ambush on its way to Pibor in South Sudan on Saturday 25th of March. The incident is a grave attack against aid workers causing calls for investigation.
Six staff members of the South Sudanese humanitarian aid agency GREDO were reportedly killed when their vehicle fell into an ambush last Saturday. The incident occurred in the early morning hours on the road leading from the capital Juba to Pibor town, which is approximately 250 kilometres away.
The aid workers were traveling in a convoy when the attack happened. The bodies of the aid workers were found on the road by the convoy members who reached the area after some time.
GREDO has been a partner to Finn Church Aid in South Sudan since 2016. Together the two organisations have supported sports for peace activities for the youth in Pibor and its neighbouring counties with the aim of increasing peaceful co-existence and unity among them.
“I’m aghast and infuriated by the despicable murder of six courageous humanitarian colleagues”, says Pio Ding, FCA’s Country Director from Juba.
“This is particularly tragic at a time when humanitarian needs have reached unprecedented levels. It is entirely unacceptable that those who are trying to help are being attacked and killed. We urge the authorities to investigate and bring the killer to justice.”
The convoy, which included several vehicles and trucks, was transporting items belonging to a number of humanitarian organisations. Among these items were school construction materials for FCA, intended to be used to build new schools in Pibor, and in neighbouring Gumruk town.
FCA has implemented quality education projects in the area since 2016.
One of the most dangerous places in the world for aid workers
This incident brings the total number of aid workers killed in South Sudan to 79, counting from the beginning of the conflict in December 2013. Attacks against humanitarian workers and their premises have been on a dramatic rise in the past couple of months. This illustrates the deteriorating situation in war-torn South Sudan.
FCA’s presence in South Sudan, one of the most fragile states in the world, stretches back to 2010 when it established its country office in Juba. In 2017 FCA implements projects in the states of Jonglei, Central Equatoria and Lakes.
Open conflict, insecurity and a failing economy are making it increasingly difficult for aid workers to deliver desperately needed lifesaving assistance to the most affected communities.
The killing of aid workers will further hinder the provision of humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering of the South Sudanese people.
“The appaling trend of attacks and intimidation against aid workers and assets remain a feature of the operating environment. This has to stop immediately and perpetrators must be brought into account”, says Ding.
In February, famine was declared in parts of South Sudan, where the lives of 100 000 people are now threatened. A further 5 million are considered to be at the brink of starvation.
The conflict, which began from a rivalry between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar, is now in its fourth year, and it has led to the death of thousands and to the displacement of millions.
Each day thousands of refugees have arrived in Uganda since violence in South Sudan escalated last summer. Aid organisations warn of a severe lack of funding.
Text: Erik Nyström, Photos: Cornelia Kästner (Lutheran World Federation)
“We are at breaking point. Uganda cannot handle Africa’s largest refugee crisis alone,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a U.N. statement on Thursday.
South Sudan’s 3,6 million refugees now constitute the biggest refugee crisis in Africa. Globally only Syria and Afghanistan have produced more refugees.
Most remain internally displaced, but over 1,5 million people have fled South Sudan to neighbouring countries. Uganda hosts more than half of those refugees, a total of 800 000 in March.
Thousands have arrived each day since hostilities erupted into war in July 2016. Most arrive after wandering in the bush for days with horrific stories of indiscriminate violence, killings, rapes and forced recruitment of children.
South Sudanese refugees awaiting plot allocation in Palorinya refugee settlement in Northern Uganda. Around 90 per cent of the refugees are women and children. According to their stories all adult males – brothers, fathers and husbands – have been killed or captured. Photo: LWF / Cornelia Kästner
Severe underfunding is creating significant gaps in the crisis response of Uganda’s government and aid organisations. Only 36 per cent of the 251 million US dollars needed for 2016 has been received. This creates significant challenges in providing refugees with food rations, clean water and services like health and education.
The drought that’s consuming Eastern Africa has also complicated food production in Uganda. In November WFP was forced to halve food rations in order to provide nutrition for everyone.
“Further cuts can’t be ruled out”, fears Kaisa Huhtela, FCA’s humanitarian coordinator in Uganda.
UN agencies, humanitarian organisations and the office of the Prime Minister in Uganda issued an appeal to the world in December to bring an end to the suffering of the South Sudanese people. FCA was one of the signatories.
Uganda’s way of dealing with refugees has long received a lot of praise. Newcomers are provided with a small plot of land within local host communities, where they can settle down and live peacefully. However, the pace of arrivals has been tough to keep up with.
FCA works with the refugees in Bidibidi settlement in Yumbe district and Pagrinya settlement in Adjumani district. New settlements have basically been opened every third month, Huhtela says. A new refugee settlement opened in Palorinya in December already exceeded its capacity of 100 000 in February, totaling at 140 000.
Creating new plots for farming is an enormous task on the rocky grounds of the settlements.
“We can’t keep up with this pace of arrivals and the need of further settlements. Without increased funding it becomes ever more difficult to ensure refugees their basic human dignity”, Huhtela says.
South Sudanese refugees who have just crossed the border to Uganda near Pomoju border point. Photo: LWF / Cornelia Kästner
The first collection point behind the South Sudanese border, where all refugees are vaccinated against Polio and Measles. Photo: LWF / Cornelia Kästner
Refugees are transported for plot allocation in Palorinya refugee settlement in Northern Uganda. Photo: LWF / Cornelia Kästner
People are dying from hunger in South Sudan as more than half of its population suffers from an urgent lack of food. The conflict has forced farmers to abandon their fields, and the cost of basic food commodities increase daily.
Text: Erik Nyström
The flag of South Sudan, a little worse for wear, flies over the market in the town of Alek. Photo: Paul Jeffrey / ACT Alliance
Africa’s worst war is entering its fourth year, but the situation only seems to get more dreadful.
A famine threatening a hundred thousand people’s lives was declared in parts of South Sudan in February, and a million more are considered to be at the brink of famine. The situation is described as man-made.
Because of the constant conflict, insecurity and displacement, people are unable to cultivate and produce food for themselves or for sale, FCA’s humanitarian program adviser Moses Habib explains.
For instance the Equatoria region has traditionally been the breadbasket of the country, producing a majority of consumable foods. Now it’s also been plunged into violence and can’t produce food items as before.
“Farmers have had to abandon their fields and stop planting and harvesting. There are agricultural villages that are now completely empty. No people are left, only wild dogs”, Habib says.
Potential spillover into FCA project locations
Late last year the UN warned that the violence in South Sudan might escalate into genocide. Armed groups kill people with machetes, burn down villages and gang rape women. Hate speech fuels the conflict, and there’s a fear that words lead to action.
Aerial view of rural village in South Sudan. Photo: ACT Alliance
On top of all this comes a famine, which by next summer might engulf 5,5 million people if nothing’s done.
Almost the same amount of people – more than 40 per cent of South Sudan’s population – are already in urgent need of food, agriculture and nutrition assistance. The drought that plagues Eastern Africa is also to blame for the severity of the crisis. FCA supports relief efforts in the region with a total of 150 000 euros, of which a third goes to food aid in South Sudan.
Famine has been declared in Unity state, which borders Jonglei state where FCA works. FCA’s field office in Fangak County is separated from Unity state only by the Nile River.
The beneficiaries of the ECHO financed project in Fangak have fled from Unity state during previous waves of conflict and insecurity.
“There is a likelihood of the famine spilling over to our project locations. We’re expecting that the numbers of internally displaced persons will keep rising”, says Habib.
“When people are hungry and do not see any assistance coming, they will start packing their belongings and walking in search of a place where they and their children can survive.”
Prices of goods are skyrocketing
According to Habib there are also visible signs of a looming famine among urban communities, including the capital Juba, where FCA’s country office is. The goods that are available in the markets in Juba are very few, and the prices have hiked up so much that most people don’t have enough money to purchase food.
The cost of living has risen exponentially across the country. Cereal prices have increased by more than 500 per cent in only a year. A staple food such as 3,5 kilo of maize grain now costs 1,200 South Sudanese Pounds (60 euros). Before the crisis erupted last summer it cost 110 SSP (5,50 euro).
Products such as bread, meat, tea and sugar have become luxury items that the average citizen cannot afford to buy. Four pieces of bread used to cost one pound (5 cents), but now one piece costs eight pounds (40 cents).
“As the cost of basic food commodities keeps increasing on a daily basis, most families are surviving on one meal a day or nothing”, Habib says.
“Quick action needs to be taken by the government and the international community to ensure that humanitarians are able to deliver lifesaving assistance without unnecessary impediments.”
A boy drinks water from a well in an internally displaced persons camp in Aweng, South Sudan. Photo: Paul Jeffrey / ACT Alliance
