Shameful indicators of declared famine in South Sudan
Article
Comments (0)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
By Mohamed M. Yassin
South Sudan again, yes again tremendous suffering is happening in
South Sudan, the newly independent African country is dragged again
into useless civil war causing famine though it has been a territory
of protracted crises. The South Sudanese people have been facing
enormous challenges of survival for decades and decades. In the recent
history, the South Sudanese people have witnessed the ugly
macro-tragedies of slave trade and assault on the its natural
resources, of isolation due to the discriminative closed areas
policies, marginalization and exclusion from development and
self-governance in the post-colonization era, and currently
significant part of the state is witnessing man-made disaster of
declared famine.
The beloved South Sudan has been deliberately set aside from the
sustainable development in terms of education, health, economic
growth, sound social cohesion, durable sustaining infrastructures, and
food and nutrition security. The vast majority of generations of South
Sudanese have missed proper education during the epochs of these
tragedies, and the few elites who escaped that gloomy disabling and
dire circumstances found refuge in the Diaspora and camps and
territories of displacement, where they at least managed to gain sorts
of education and experiences. These elites and Diaspora could have
achieved and contribute in retake the control of the developmental
paths of their country, but often have been denied the chance to act
so or even when given the chance, they fall in the corruption traps,
misuse and mismanagement of the entrusted processes, this is the often
proven case.
South Sudan is blessed, endowed and rich in its natural resources, it
is an under-populated country of estimated twelve million inhabitants
owning millions of livestock and surrounded by huge forests and
incredible natural eco-systems in the Sudd swamps and extended natural
parks very rich in fauna and flora embedding invaluable biodiversity.
The South Sudan is very rich in terms of fertile and virgin lands and
crossed by numerous rivers and natural streams, which are an important
part of the Nile Basin system.
The South Sudan is a landlocked country depending on neighbouring
countries on its trade and communication with the external world. The
deprived people of South Sudan are walking on an underground wealth of
oil and minerals. The crude oil is finding its way to the export and
international markets through two main pipelines stemming from Unity
state and Upper Nile state, passing refineries in Khartoum and Port
Sudan and ending at the Red Sea export outlets. The country is
blackmailed in its oil export and trade processes by multinational oil
operating agglomerates, colluded officials, corrupted systems and
subsidiary networks. The Sudan is imposing unjust transit tariffs
despite the fact that the pipeline, refineries and all the related
infrastructures have been built and erected from the very resources of
the South Sudanese oil, what an astonishing consented robbery?.
Doubtless, the famine is a terrible emergency and the hungry
vulnerable humans are facing death or live question, the situation
does not tolerate waiting lists or queues, the children, elders and
all there are in urgent and desperate need of rescue, and this dire
situation is aggravated by the ongoing insecurity and instability
generated by the successive insurgencies and inter-ethnic or tribal
assaults, which are, in most of the cases, stimulated by the
traditional enemies of the South Sudan people or connected
stakeholders who are benefiting from this confusing situation.
South Sudan independence is obtained by the people of South Sudan in
particular, people of Sudan and the assistance of friends from all
corners of the globe, following the South Sudanese massive vote in the
referendum, which is a consequence and dividend of the comprehensive
peace agreement between the warring government of Sudan and the Sudan
People’s liberation Army/Movement. The creation of sovereign South
Sudan state is a process witnessed, blessed, endorsed, assisted and
recognised by the United Nations, the international community and
regional bodies and it will be imperative for all the engaged
stakeholders to accompany this process to full completion.
The responsibilities to protect the vulnerable South Sudanese and
consolidate its fragile state is a collective moral obligation, no one
is exempted and allowed to stay in the indifference square, especially
under the current emergency situation of recognised famine and echoed
appeals, cries, desperations to save the affected people. Here we are
in front of basic human right to live, the human right to food and
alimentary sovereignty; here we are dealing with sovereignty and
dignity of people and not a sovereignty of the government. We are in
front of moral obligations to accompany the transformational process
in South Sudan and Sudan and abandon the indifference in a world where
there are plenty food and nutritional elements sufficient to leave no
one behind. We should shoulder the responsibilities of advancing the
human and humanitarian sovereignty and dignity of the people and
citizens rather than observing the political and military sovereignty.
Institution and moral entities should rupture the silence and act on
the ground to rescue the starving people before their vanishing, and
then is no need to cry over the loss of people and decrying the
suffering when we can prevent it, stopping the conflicts and allowing
and availing the humanitarian assistance, which is possible and that
should not be blocked or restricted in the name of governmental
sovereignty. Hunger is terrible, it hits hard, and it will be simple
to deeply understand it in the case of lack of food and water
everywhere by everyone at any time. There is no understandable
rationale in successive occurrence of famine in our times, what is
needed is known but not actionable in the case of South Sudan, lands
are abandon and fertile, rains and water and seeds are available,
farmers and farming are lacking due to multiplicity of factors, and
that is possible to cure. Seeing a lot of people, mothers, children
and elders malnourished, starving stimulate bitterness, hatred, fear,
despair and induce more conflicts, fighting and demolishing of
socio-economic fabrics, and deepening of the existing extreme poverty.
The repercussion of famine is huge and goes to years and years. Famine
is a shameful manifestation of injustice and dramatic denial of the
peoples’ right to food and deprivation of dignity. To combat famine,
we should not stop at the declarations of emergency and fill the media
with its news, almost most of the people in locations where there is
plenty food cannot understand what does dying of hunger mean, maybe
that is the reason why they are remaining indifferent. We should not
stop at showing people’s protruded ribs and the emaciated children,
just for fundraising, and then sending modest food ratio to be thrown
over the heads of the hunger, but we should seek sustainable and
durable solutions while rescuing those who are experiencing the
declared, hidden and deliberated hunger in Sudan and South Sudan in
particular.
Mohamed Yassin Department of Agro-food, Environmental and Animal
Sciences (Di4A), University of Udine, Italy, e-mail:
[email protected]
--
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob
View this message at
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"South Sudan Info - The Kob" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob.
To view this discussion on the web visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14orWpK8TZhQJEUabJ0D1FROtDF_iZ9fj%2BCJCo_5qzZafNw%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
