UN: South Sudanese so hungry, ravaged by civil war they are fleeing into Darfur

The civil war in South Sudan has left people so hungry and desperate for relief that they are even fleeing across the border into Darfur, a long-troubled region of famine and suffering in neighbouring Sudan, the U.N. humanitarian co-ordinator for South Sudan said Tuesday.

Some 900,000 South Sudanese are homeless since the war erupted in December, and about 195,000 of them have fled as refugees to Uganda, Ethiopia and even into Darfur, Tony Lanzer told The Associated Press.

South Sudan broke away from Sudan to become independent in 2011. Sudan’s western Darfur region has been gripped by violence since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government.

“I never thought I would see people fleeing into Darfur,” Lanzer said. “It’s a very painful thing for the world’s youngest country if your people are fleeing.”

South Sudan’s civil war broke out in December between supporters of ousted Vice-President Riek Machar, from the Nuer ethnic group, and the forces of President Salva Kiir, who is an ethnic Dinka. The two sides agreed to a cease-fire in January, but that agreement does not appear to be holding.

“The single biggest thing I need right now is a cease-fire, to get them help now,” Lanzer said.

A total of 3.7 million South Sudanese are “food insecure,” or unsure of where their next meal will come from, he said, out of a population of about 11 million.

Lanzer is organizing donations for international relief aid in the coming weeks during the dry season, when roads are passable. The World Food Program hopes to pre-position 146,000 tons of food. By June, during the wet season, supplies would have to be airlifted at far greater cost.

“Now, 90 per cent of funds go toward relief, and 10 per cent to delivery,” Lanzer said. By June, that ratio will have flipped.

Adding to the urgency, people need to sow crops before June but are afraid to go into the fields.

“There will not be a harvest if people do not cultivate,” Lanzer said.