The east African nation has remained deeply poor and unstable since independence in 2011 and is massively dependent on international aid despite its oil wealth.
It is among the countries facing shortfalls following US President Donald Trump’s decision to slash funding for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which had provided over 40 percent of global humanitarian aid.
The cuts are biting at a time when the country is experiencing multiple crises, including a cholera outbreak that has killed 1,300 people since September.
Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday that the Abyei region in northwest South Sudan was the latest to see an outbreak, with more than 330 cholera cases recorded in June thanks to a “critical” lack of water and sanitation facilities.
On Tuesday, British journal The Lancet said the cuts to USAID could lead to more than 14 million deaths globally by 2030, including over 4.5 million children under the age of five.
“I think it’s not just a fear. It’s already a reality. We’re already having some mortality rates coming in,” said Denish Ogen Rwot, Action Against Hunger’s communication and advocacy lead in South Sudan.
“Already we are having children die,” he added.
The international NGO works across South Sudan, including in the increasingly violent Jonglei state, providing food and supplies.
Rwot estimated they had lost 30 percent of their funding due to the USAID cuts.
“That means now we’ll have facilities without food… and how do we work without these supplies?,” he asked.
Rwot recently visited northern Warrap state, near the border with Sudan — itself enduring a civil war — describing the warehouses as “very empty”.
“They’re still registering people, but there is no food for them,” he said.
The World Food Programme (WFP) warned this week that acute malnutrition rates among refugee children in South Sudan — fleeing the war in Sudan — had “already breached emergency thresholds”.
Action Against Hunger has been forced to reduce its staffing in the country from 300 to 86, further impacting its ability to respond during a crisis.
“We are running on sheer faith,” Rwot said.
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© Agence France-Presse
