“Tell them we are starving,” beg South Sudanese as food aid dries up because “White people are at war” in Ukraine

Kapoeta, South Sudan World leaders at the G7 summit pledged $4.5 billion this week to combat food insecurity around the world. This help cannot come soon enough for millions of People in South Sudan who are on the brink of starvation.

CBS News foreign correspondent Deborah Bata visited one of the worst-hit areas. I arrived after the first rain in 18 months – cause for celebration that got the local kids out dancing in the streets.

But greenery belies a drought-stricken village. On farm fields everywhere, the soil is very dry.

Nachubra Lumuria once lived on the land, but she tells Bata that nothing grows in the wasteland anymore. Her mother died of starvation last year, and Lumoria is convinced she is next.

“If the food stops coming, you won’t find me alive on your next visit,” she said.

United nations’ World Food Program It was her only lifeline, but that is now cut off.

“I’m terrified,” she admitted. “Please, keep giving us food.”

Acting Country Director Adinka Badejo told CBS News that the organization had been forced to suspend aid to nearly two million people in South Sudan due to rising fuel and food costs amid The war in Ukraine.

“We have to take from the hungry to feed the hungry, because if you live on one meal a day and even that meal is no longer there, you face starvation,” Lapata said.

There is a market in Kapoeta town but it takes a day for many locals to get there and there is a shortage of grain there too.

Napier Marco was at the market, but she told CBS News she didn’t have food aid, and she couldn’t stand eating.

“We heard that they stopped the aid because the whites are at war,” Labata said.

There is a lot of truth in this rumor. The market couldn’t be far from Ukraine, but Vladimir Putin’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports on the Black Sea had a direct impact on the cost of food in South Sudan. Ukraine has long been a major supplier of grain to the world, but has been unable to ship this vital food supply to Africa and other regions due to the blockade.

The crisis has helped drive up the cost of basic commodities by nearly 100% in South Sudan.

“We don’t have enough food because we don’t have enough resources,” WFP’s Bidjo told Bata. “The needs in South Sudan are enormous. Three out of four people do not have enough food to eat. Three out of four people are facing acute levels of hunger and this is caused by the continuing conflict. You have three years of unprecedented flooding in South Sudan. You have the economic impacts of the COVID pandemic. -19, and now we are seeing the result of the war in Ukraine. ”

Sophie Valentino is among those who are upset.

“My main message to the world is to stop unnecessary wars so that when peace comes the United Nations can focus and buy food to supply countries in need,” she said.

Her salary as a high school teacher is not going away these days, as prices in the market have doubled.

Lumoria, who spoke to CBS News on her family’s burned-out farm, couldn’t even bear to wear clothes on two of her children, who ran around naked while visiting Bata.

Her last bag of food aid will only last for two weeks.

“We just need food,” she kept saying. “You should help us… tell them we’re starving.”