Families in Mogos Payam of Kapoeta East County are fleeing
their villages due to hunger, officials have told Singaita FM.
“Hunger started last year in May; the people are suffering
badly, and now they are too malnourished,” said Lino Lodinga, Mogos paramount
chief, on Wednesday.
Located at the border South Sudan-Kenya border, Kapoeta is
lived by pastoralist communities.
The communities engage in subsistence farming, growing maize,
sorghum, and green vegetables.
However, the area receives little or no rainfall at all every
year, making it famine- and drought-prone.
Until last year, the World Food Program was supporting the
communities there.
The UN agency was reportedly forced
to cut food distribution due to funding shortfalls.
The traditional lead appealed for urgent assistance from the
state government and humanitarian organizations.
“I am asking NGOs to help the people with food assistance, so
that we do not die of hunger,” Lodinga said, adding that the hunger-stricken families are now at shopping centers in the country.
For his part, the commissioner of Kapoeta East County confirmed
the situation, saying hunger has hit the entire county.
Abdallah Lokeno echoed the call for urgent food assistance.
“I urge the NGOs and national government to rescue our civil
population in Murarangan, Jie, Kauto, and Najek. It is really hitting the
civilians so much; they don’t get food anymore,” he added.
The population of Kapoeta East County is estimated at
79,000.