Telling the ECSA Story

With over 600 people dead, 5,100 injured, approximately 730,000 displaced, and few health centers operational, the dire situation in Sudan is getting worse, with growing health and hunger concerns. The conflict threatens the planting season which is set to begin at the end of May. If the season is missed, the number of people going hungry —at 11 million or 25 percent of the population prior to the current crisis—will increase. Before the conflict, one out of four people in Sudan was going to bed hungry. This additional (and imminent) threat to Sudan’s food system will impact women the most, a reality underscored by a recent analysis by CARE Sudan that found gender imbalances in the country’s existing hunger crises. David Macdonald, CARE Sudan Country Director, said, “With the ongoing crisis, women are eating less. Before the current crisis, 42% of households headed by women had less food compared to 31% of male-headed households. Women are key in the food production chain and with...

   A mother is heeding her child with plumbee nuts at a health facility in Bentiu. B etween January and June 2022, CARE supported Health facilities have treated over 26,000 children . A staggering 63 percent of South Sudan’s population will struggle to survive the peak of this year’s annual ‘lean season’, with 87,000 people predicted to be in catastrophic food crisis category – at the risk of starvation and death - whilst humanitarian agencies are forced to cut services due to lack of funds. According to Benoit Munsch, CARE Managing Deputy Regional Director for Great Lakes, “South Sudan was recently flagged, in a UN WFP/FAO hunger hotspots report , as being on the brink of starvation. The needs and the number of people going hungry are rising, while food assistance programmes are being cut thus leaving huge gaps in humanitarian funding. The current funding gap stands at $529 Million.” Over 7.7 million people are classified in Crisis or worse in South Sudan, with some 3 ...