JUBA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Several internally displaced persons (IDPs) in South Sudan like Veronica Oywal, 35 years old and mother of six children, are among thousands of vulnerable people in the Malakal protection of civilians (PoC) site who have benefitted from improved humanitarian access due to the prevailing peace.
Oywal is among millions of South Sudanese, who according to the recent food security survey by the UN, need urgent food assistance to stave off the prospect of hunger as the rainy season pounds and cuts off access to several people in need, despite the warring parties making progress in implementation of the peace deal signed in September 2018.
She was among the IDPs who received their monthly food ration on Wednesday from the World Food Programme (WFP) that included 10.5 kg of cereals and vegetable oil in the Malakal PoC site amid reports that 6.96 million South Sudanese will face acute levels of food insecurity or worse by the end of July.
However, Oywal remains wary of the food rations running out in a few days before July when the WFP intends to distribute food again to the over 27,000 IDPs in the camp in the northern Upper Nile region.
Oywal's concern points to the hardship many people like her find themselves in amid improved peace and security in the youngest nation seeking recovery from more than five-year-long conflict that devastated livelihoods and uprooted millions from their homes.
"I receive food ration for six people including my grandchildren and mother at the PoC. The food is not enough. It will get finished within 15 days," she told Xinhua in Malakal PoC.
Oywal who fled to the PoC during outbreak of conflict in December 2013, disclosed that for now she does not envisage going back to Malakal town because her house is still being occupied by other people.
Regina Mayik, 23, mother of three children said, that before being displaced from her home in Malakal town into the PoC, she had enough to eat with her family, but now she won't be worrying of her next meal for the coming days after receiving her food ration from WFP.
Mayik had been relying on cash transfers for food from her relatives to survive in the camp but felt relieved after getting her food ration to feed her children food.
Mayik said she lost everything including her home during the conflict, adding that she was ready to endure the situation in the PoC due to the now timely support from humanitarian agencies.
"I have nowhere to go if I were to leave the camp. I am ready for whatever situation when the food (ration) gets finished," she said. WFP supplies about 400 tonnes of food monthly to the Malakal PoC.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) update released by UN agencies and South Sudan government in June, the effective implementation of the peace agreement and political stability are imperative to allow urgent and scaled-up humanitarian assistance to protect livelihoods and boost agricultural production across the country to save lives.
Callixte Kayitare, head of WFP's office in Upper Nile, told Xinhua that IDPs living in the PoC rely on food assistance from the WFP because they don't have access to land to enable them to produce food for themselves.
"The ration they were receiving previously was a standard ration it was really enough but it happened last year that resources available in the country were not enough to feed all the people in need of assistance, so management took a decision to cut the ration by 30 percent to enable WFP to feed all the IDPs across the country, otherwise we could have run out of stock if we had continued with the full ration," he said.
Kayitare disclosed that they hope to resume providing IDPs the standard ration when resources get available enough in the future.
"We are targeting 28,000 people but not forgetting also other 4,000 people who used to stay here in the PoC but were forced to leave due to inter-communal violence, so they were resettled in Malakal town and they continue to receive food assistance on monthly basis," said Kayitare.
He said that WFP and partners have provided the IDPs with vegetable seeds and tools to support their livelihoods.
"Since this year security has improved, they can now go to the river and they do fishing, the situation is different than previous years because some of them have started some kind of livelihood activities like fishing, gardening and selling of fire wood," the UN official said.
"We have also started topping up a small amount of food to help them pay the milling cost, previously they used to find themselves some money to pay but now we realized that there were some poor people who were selling a portion of the food received to be able to find money to pay the milling cost," added Kayitare.
Inos Mugabe, food assistance officer at World Vision International, said peace has enabled humanitarian support reach those in need.
"We are now seeing many people who were in conflict now reaching out to each other. For example in the PoC, people are slowly going back to Malakal town to do their livelihood activities selling coffee, preparing news for sale and there has been a lot of movement between Malakal PoC and Malakal town," he said, adding that if peace holds on longer, a lot of people are going to return home.
"We hope things continue the way they are right now but I must say also it takes a lot of effort and time to build trust among the various competing communities," Mugabe added.
