Roundup: South Sudan to face deepening hunger if peace does not hold, UN food agency warns

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Saturday warned that the human costs of recent fighting in the capital Juba will be compounded by deepening hunger across South Sudan if peace does not hold.

Millions of people facing hunger in South Sudan will be driven to the brink of catastrophe if renewed flashes of violence derail the fragile peace process in the war-torn country, the UN food agency said in a press release.

Intense gunfire erupted again in Juba on July 7 as the renewed fighting threatened to send the world's youngest country back to all-out civil war.

The latest clashes between opposition and government forces have been the most violent in Juba since the end of the country's two-year civil war in August 2015.

The most recent FAO assessment, released last month, showed South Sudan was already in dire straits, with over 4.8 million people severely food insecure and malnutrition rates rampant.

The assessment projected severe food shortages over the months to come and warned of the risk of hunger crises in parts of the country, the press release said.

"In Juba, which hasn't experienced such a level of violence in years, a fragile calm now appears to be holding, but uncertainty grips the city and supplies to food markets have been disrupted," said FAO Country Representative Serge Tissot.

"And while we hope that the situation will hold, violence may flare up again," he said. "If the tenuous peace process falters, the consequences will be widespread and an already dire situation, in which over half the nation's population is food insecure, could get much, much worse."

A return to stability and the continuation of the peace process are essential to allowing agricultural production to continue and markets to open, said FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva.

"The people of the world's youngest nation cannot afford any further instability," the FAO chief said. "We have to remember that peace and food security are two sides of the same coin -- it's the currency that drives development and prosperity."

"The future of the country depends on the people of South Sudan making a firm and lasting commitment to peace, now," he said.

At present, FAO is assessing the full extent of losses incurred following the violence that broke out last week, when its Juba warehouse was ransacked and stocks of essential supplies like seeds and tools earmarked to help food-insecure people across the country save their livelihoods were looted.

"As the FAO offices in South Sudan remain operational, the continuation of our support to those most in need requires that additional resources be urgently made available to replace what was looted," said Tissot.

"Under normal conditions, harvesting of the main maize and sorghum crop would begin in a few weeks' time -- planting of a second season would take place over the same period," he said. "How well those activities are able to proceed will have a big impact on food security in both the short and the longer term."

The latest flare-up of fighting between the forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, which left scores of people dead, has raised questions about the political stability.

The South Sudanese leaders signed an agreement in August 2015 to form a unity government. The unity government was formed in April to run the country until elections are held within 36 months.

South Sudan has canceled this year's independence celebrations due to the economic crunch resulting from more than two years of civil conflict. It won independence on July 9, 2011 from Sudan after more than two decades of war that ended in a bitter divorce.

The country again plunged into conflict in December 2013 after Kiir accused his deputy Machar of plotting a coup, which the latter denied, leading to a cycle of retaliatory killings.

Kiir and Machar signed a peace deal in August that paved way for the formation of the transitional unity government to end more than two years of civil conflict. Endit