---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "John Ashworth" <[email protected]> Date: 18 Aug 2017 08:53 Subject: [sudans-john-ashworth] In Nuba Mountains, no food left and children are dying To: "Group" <[email protected]> Cc:
In Sudan's Nuba Mountains, no food left, and children are dying ON: 8/17/2017, BY BRONWEN DACHS The Boston Pilot When people talk about potential famine, they mention South Sudan. But about 1 million people who live just over the border, in Sudan's Nuba Mountains, also face a food emergency. "I call it famine," said Bishop Macram Max Gassis, retired bishop of El Obeid, Sudan. The "hunger the people are experiencing" in the Nuba Mountains is "not totally due to the cruelty of nature but, unfortunately, is man-made." A survey in the diocese's area of operation, published in June, found that 74 percent of respondents had no food in their homes and 55 percent had, in the previous 30 days, at least one member of the household go a whole day and night without eating at least once. South Sudan won its independence from Sudan in 2011, and Nuba was a disputed region that remained in Sudan, despite its people's affiliations with the South. Today, people in Sudan's Nuba Mountains are being bombed by their own government, Bishop Gassis told Catholic News Service. The Diocese of El Obeid issued a statement in early August stating that Nuba communities "are surrounded by battle lines, effectively isolated." It said delivery of basic services by the Sudanese government and international humanitarian organizations stopped in mid-2011. The diocese "is one of a handful of humanitarian actors delivering critical and life-saving assistance in the area under extremely difficult conditions characterized by high levels of insecurity," its statement said. The suffering "is evident in the vast number" of people needing food aid and is worse than any previous suffering in the memory of any diocesan staff member, the statement said. "Here, I have shed tears watching emaciated women with babies on their backs being turned away when they get to the front of the long line because there is nothing left for them," Oliver Waindi, executive director of the Bishop Gassis Relief and Rescue Foundation, told CNS. "The suffering is as I imagine hell to be." "There are a lot of children dying here," Waindi said, noting that before the changed weather patterns of the past two years, "people had very little to eat, but now they have nothing at all." Bishop Gassis said last year, the rainy season was poor, and this year floods have ruined what little people were able to plant. "To give you a picture of how bad things are," residents of the Nuba Mountains are walking for weeks to seek refuge in South Sudan, Waindi said. "They do that because, in South Sudan, when their turn comes to get a simple bowl of grain, they are more likely to get it," he said. http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=180076 END ______________________ John Ashworth [email protected] +254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile) +211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile) +44 787 976 8030 (UK mobile) +88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone) Skype: jashworth1 PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily reflect the views of any organisation -- -- The content of this message does not necessarily reflect John Ashworth's views. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, John Ashworth is not the author of the content and the source is always cited. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudan-john-ashworth" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sudan-john-ashworth- [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.za/ group/sudan-john-ashworth --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudans-john-ashworth" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/sudans-john-ashworth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- 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/CAJb14oqRRQyCP8qz-%2BZuWiZVa4-GyXLZi5xxciOLvMoVuDz_mg%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
