SOUTH SUDAN: Catholic Bishop of Tombura-Yambio Regrets South Sudanese Depend on Foreign Donations.

Ginaba Lino

As most of South Sudanese are depending on humanitarian AID, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio expressed his worries on the future has the Country depend on foreign donation.

On Sunday June 19, 2022, Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kusala stressed that a country like South Sudan to depend on foreign donations reflects badly on its leadership which is unable to take care of its people.

“A country like South Sudan where many citizens are employed and work should not depend on humanitarian AID. But the country is unable to support its people; the services citizens are getting are mostly from foreign support.”

Bishop Hiiboro described the services such as the health sector, education and other key cluster services which are running on external donations.

“Our health services, education and other key cluster services are mostly supported by foreign donations and this cripples the entire development of the country.”

He said, if young people in South Sudan inherit the spirit of receiving donations and their mind set is only to expect humanitarians services, they will not be critical thinkers, and that is not good for the future of the nation.

“Churches and all the South Sudanese are supposed to sustain themselves and their country and the next generation will benefit from their legacy,” the Bishop narrated.

He advised the people of South Sudan to make better use of the fertile land that they have and liberate their minds from donor dependence.

“The current generation must make use of the fertile land in South Sudan and subdue it; this is the only way South Sudanese will liberate their minds from always saying ‘Thank you’ for donations.”

On June 14, 2022, the World Food Program or (WFP) suspended food assistance and nearly 2 million S. Sudanese risk starvation.

The World Food Program has suspended food assistance to South Sudan due to insufficient funding.

The UN Food Agency says it exhausted all options before suspending food assistance, including halving rations in 2021, leaving families in need with less food to eat.

WFP says, its crisis response and resilience-building development programs were drastically underfunded this year and required 426 million dollars to reach six million food-insecure people this year.

The Agency says almost one-third of the country’s population is in acute food insecurity and will be left without humanitarian food assistance.

It says these latest reductions to assistance will also impact 178,000 school children who will no longer receive daily school meals.

The Agency regrets the suspension of aid as it comes at the worst possible time when the South Sudan as the country faces a year of unprecedented hunger.

“We are extremely concerned about the impact of the funding cuts on children, women and men who will not have enough to eat during the lean season. These families have completely exhausted their coping strategies,” WFP Acting Country Director said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Adeyinka Badejo warned that over 60 percent of the population are still in need immediate humanitarian assistance this time.

In 2022, the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) assessment warned that 7.74 million people will face severe acute hunger at the height of the lean season between June and August, while 1.4 million children will be acutely malnourished.