Since last week, World Food Programme (WFP) has been airlifting food to more than 4,000 vulnerable households in Aweil Town alone.

According to Elisabeth Henry, Coordinator of the implementing agency Joint Aid Management International (JAM), the food situation in the area is still worrying.

“It is bad, it is deteriorating. The 4,000 households we have reached are not the only one suffering”, she says, and appeals to people in the area to be patient.

Valerie Guanieri, Regional Director at the World Food Programme office in Nairobi, has concluded a food security assessment in Aweil.

“This year, there are some particular hunger challenges in the state that we are addressing through food distribution and nutrition assistance to the populations.  We have already done two rounds of distributions, where we have reached a total of 200,000 people in the state. Our aim is to assist 400,000 vulnerable people with food as well as with nutrition support.”

After meeting the WFP Regional Director, the top government official in the area, Ronald Ruay Deng, commended the intervention of the international community to alleviate the hunger situation.

 “Since the crisis started, WFP has really stood strongly in their support of the conditions of our citizens in the state. We thank them for really highlighting this problem to the global public, said Ruay, adding that the needs are still “huge” and that more aid is necessary.

UNMISS has played a part in supporting the delivery of the food aid.

“We are not directly involved, but we are core members in the food security cluster meetings and were initially involved in this plan for urgent assistance to the needy population by providing the cluster members with additional information we gathered on the ground during UNMISS patrols in the area", says John Rubaramira, Team Leader of the Mission’s Relief, Reintegration and Protection office in Aweil, adding that these kinds of early warnings are crucial for humanitarian delivery to work.

Apart from such gathering and sharing of information, UNMISS also provides humanitarian partners with technical support, force protection and assessments of the situation in different and sometimes hard-to-reach areas.