Fears grow as locusts swarm towards South Sudan

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN: The food supplies of some of the most vulnerable children and families in South Sudan are under threat as massive swarms of desert locusts head towards the country’s border with Kenya and Uganda, Save the Children warns.

The huge plague of locusts, which has already decimated the crops of countries in the Horn of Africa, has been spotted close to Eastern Equatoria on South Sudan’s border with Kenya and Ethiopia. Out of 78 counties in South Sudan, 15% of those already in ‘extreme need’ are located in Eastern Equatoria.

South Sudan has frequently been beset by conflict since it gained independence in 2011. Coupled with drought and flooding, this has led to the displacement of 1.47 million people, who live in temporary camps with basic shelter and often non-existent sanitation. It’s estimated that more than six million South Sudanese people – just under 60% of the total population – face severe food insecurity and are in need of humanitarian assistance. Thousands of families already face severe food shortages which can lead to death and very high and increasing malnutrition in children -- including in Kapoeta North, Budi and Pibor counties, which are most likely to be infested by desert locusts.

Save the Children is warning that , unless more is done to control the locust swarms, they could contribute to a further drop in nutrition levels. Even without the locusts, it is projected that more than 1.3 million children aged under five will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2020 including close to 292,000 from severe acute malnutrition.

The current locust outbreak is expected to continue until June 2020 amid favourable conditions for locust reproduction. Climate shocks remain a driving factor for acute food insecurity in the Horn of Africa and continue to affect several countries in the region severely. Rainfall between March and mid-May last year was less than 50% of the annual average across the region, and subsequent heavy rainfall and flooding affected nearly 2.8 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, destroying large swathes of crops.

Rama Hansraj, Save the Children’s Country Director in South Sudan, said:

“We have been watching the devastating progress of the desert locusts across the Horn in despair. We fear that the situation, which is already serious in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, will become even more extreme if the locusts reach South Sudan. Last year we had a prolonged, damaging drought, followed by floods, which displaced thousands of people and destroyed hundreds of homes, and the country is still reeling from years of conflict. A swarm of locusts could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

“We are calling on donors to increase their funding for community resilience programming and to support community-led surveillance and preparedness. Critically, more funds are needed for already cash-strapped food programmes in South Sudan, and we are calling on the government of South Sudan and humanitarian organisations to invest more resources in the agricultural sector to avert the devastating impact of the locusts infestation in South Sudan.”

More than 10 million people already facing severe food insecurity in Crisis (IPC Phase 3)* or worse in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan are located in areas currently affected by the desert locust infestation. A further 3.24 million in Uganda and South Sudan are under threat from expanding swarms.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

Save the Children in South Sudan:

Save the Children has been working in South Sudan since 1989 and our teams are reaching children and their families in some of the areas that have been worst-affected by food insecurity and violence.  We currently have operations in seven of the former-states, with Country Office operations in Juba.

Responding to the current hunger crisis, Save the Children has reached nearly 138,000 people, including more than 58,000 children, through cash and foods distribution to meet their own needs and feed their families using available local resources. In addition to cash and food distributions, we are distributing emergency livelihood kits that include crop and vegetable seeds, hand tools, and fishing kits; restocking goats, to help replenish herds and recover livelihoods; and providing veterinary services to support pastoralists.

* The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is a common global system for classifying the severity and magnitude of a food insecurity and malnutrition situation.