By Bida Elly David
Humanitarian situation in the country remains at stake, as many citizens still battle starvation, lack of shelter, and medical attention.
Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) echoed these sentiments in a report, tabled before the national parliament on Monday.
“The humanitarian situation remained bleak with increasing needs and over 9 million people requiring assistance,’’ RJMEC interim chair Charles Tai Gituai highlighted the report to MPs.
With the on-going economic crisis across the country triggered by the fluctuation of the foreign exchange and the weakening pound, the peace monitors noted that the vulnerable population faces hardship.
“Continuing depreciation of the local currency has aggravated food prices, which increased 19 percent in February compared to January 2024, thus worsening the situation of the population, many of whom were already acutely food insecure,” stated Gitaui.
According to the R-JMEC report, an estimated 5.78 million people were projected to be at risk of high levels of acute food insecurity between December 2023 and March 2024.
Given the limited resources from relief agencies and the continued arrival of refugees and returnees, the peace monitoring body stated that respondents were unable to provide adequate clean water, food, shelter, and health care to the needy.
“Overcrowding and unhygienic living conditions were reported in Bulukat and Renk transit centers in Upper Nile,” the RJMEC boss started in his report.
Moreover, he stressed that the dignified return and re-integration of refugees still continued to be hampered by limited funding for onward travel to the returnees’ final destinations.
He also underlined that there will be an increase in the vulnerable population as many are displaced due to inter-communal violence, among others, in Warrap and Jonglei States.
“A situation was aggravated by inter-communal violence in Warrap and Jonglei States. Violence left many people displaced with reported cases of abduction, civilian death, and sexual assault,” Gitaui pointed out.
He noted that there was destruction of public facilities in Abyei, Upper Nile, Western Bahr-El-Ghazal, and Central Equatoria.
“Shelters and livelihood sources were also negatively impacted, resulting in disruption of humanitarian efforts to assist the affected population,” the RJMEC boss revealed.
Despite all these, the R-JMEC chair applauded the government for the efforts they’re exerting towards curbing the situation but still advised them to seek urgent solutions.
He also called on parties to the agreement to speed up implementation of the agreement to ensure an end to the humanitarian crisis in the country.
“We call on the parties to the agreement to embrace the call for dialogue in the spirit of collegiality and present to the people of South Sudan a unified plan for elections with practical steps to fast track the implementation of the roadmap to ensure timely elections,” Gituai added.
Early this week, members of the international donor community issued a joint statement protesting against the South Sudan plan to impose costs (tariffs) on humanitarian donations being channeled into the country.
They urged the transitional government of national unity to halt the plan as donors fight to save the country from the humanitarian crisis.