Juba, South Sudan,
June 26, 2021 – The decision taken by the Government of the United Kingdom (UK) to cut aid flow to South Sudan was misguided and reckless, a humanitarian organization has said.
Christian Aid, a group that launched a global hunger appeal to save millions from starvation said it joins Conservative MPs to push a motion to overturn the decision.
“The recent UK government decision to cut aid to South Sudan by almost two-thirds feels at best reckless,” it says in a statement extended to Nyamilepedia.
“One casualty of the aid cuts is Christian Aid’s church-led peacebuilding work. As Christian Aid approaches the British public to ask them to respond to the global hunger crisis, we also join a growing number of Conservative MPs in asking that the UK government reverse aid cuts to South Sudan and other affected countries, and work with us to consign famine to the history books,” it added.
Making reference to reports from UN agencies, Christian Aid said the UK aid cuts came in a time when more than half of the population was food insecure and over eighty percent have sunk into extreme poverty.
“The situation in South Sudan, a country where Christian Aid has worked since the 1970s, tells a grimly familiar story. There, over 7 million people – some 60% of the population – are struggling to get enough food to live on and 82% are living in extreme poverty,” said the organization.
According to the UN, six of the country’s counties are already categorized as being in a ‘Phase 5 Catastrophe’, which means people face starvation, death, destitution, and debilitating levels of acute malnutrition; and 34 states are at level 4, meaning very high acute malnutrition and excess deaths.
Christian Aid, a humanitarian group equally affected by the 30% cuts in aid by the UK said it plans to distribute food and cash handouts to the people affected in the country.
“We plan to respond by distributing food and cash, and by boosting the nutrition of young children and breastfeeding mothers, who are especially vulnerable to hunger.
“We are also planning to improve access to water, for drinking and for agriculture and livestock, and to support women’s livelihoods with start-up capital for local businesses,” Christian Aid said.
Like Christian Aid, many humanitarian organizations working to help people in need in remote parts of the country lost funding as a result of the aid cut.
Last month, an editorial on Sky News described the decision to cut aid as unwise and tantamount to the UK losing diplomatic friends.
