Threatened Famine In South Sudan

[Elisabeth Janaina]

Threatened Famine In South Sudan
"It is a very dangerous storm gathering and there is hypocrisy among
the leadership, empty pride not to be seen as incapable of taking care
of people."
31 January 2017

By Jacob J Akol

I just received this message from someone I trust. This person stated
in these clear terms:

“I was in "Gogrial" area (you will know why I put Gogrial in quotation
marks) and my observation is that markets were empty, even in Wau, and
no signs that the harvest from this past year would sustain people,
not to speak to the already messed up Equatoria and Upper Nile. Much
worse is the fact that town populations are relocating to rural areas,
sharing the meager resources with their rural kin, quickly diminishing
these resources in a climate where there will be nowhere to buy food
even if one had a cow to sell. It is a very dangerous storm gathering
and there is hypocrisy among the leadership, empty pride not to be
seen as incapable of taking care of people. It is exactly the 1983/84
Nimeiri denial of famine in Darfur and in Ethiopia you have observed.
I shudder to think that we have leaders. Best regards.”

This message brings back bitter memories, making me wonder if we are
in or approaching the Ethiopian Famine of 1984/5 or not? Here is
partially what I wrote then and included in my book, “Burden of
Nationality” in the chapter on Ethiopia:

“”In an open space in the middle of one village, we found an Irish nun
sitting on a chair. She had on her head an enormous white hat to
protect herself from the scorching sun. All around her were the bodies
of starved men, women and children. Many of them were brought there on
stretchers. Some had lost much of their top skin to famine and their
bodies were covered with oozing sores. More starving children were
carried in as we watched the dreadful spectacle. The children who
could still feel the pangs of hunger moaned. Those far-gone felt no
pain; their silence spoke louder: nothing could save them. The nun had
no food to give them. All she had were a few biscuits and some
medicines and oils with which she dabbed on the sores on the children.

The nun was incredibly composed amid all that, as if she had long
done with mourning. "We urgently need food and medicines," she told us
calmly, "children are dying every second in this greenery."

In private meetings, international NGOs implored the Ethiopian
government to permit wider coverage of the famine by the Western
media. They received promises. But, while the government pretended
co-operation with international journalists, they were, nevertheless,
refused entry visas or in-country travel permits on the flimsiest
excuses. They were often denied access to areas severely affected by
the famine "for security reasons."

At the same time, the regime continued to talk tough and tow the
Communist line at international conferences; thus antagonising and
biting the fingers that could feed its people. For example, the day we
returned to Addis Ababa from witnessing starvation not very far south
of the capital, the Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs grilled
Western participants of an international conference, then taking place
at the Addis Ababa Hilton, on West-East relation’s issues.

When we told an Australian parliamentary delegation of the severity of
the famine, one of them responded: "What famine? The minister did not
give any impression today that there was severe famine in the
country."

We invited them to see the video footage shot that day in the
villages south of the capital. It was short but before it ended, the
parliamentarians were shedding tears.”
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