Kiir charged to be proactive in tackling food insecurity as S. Sudan topped a list of the world’s hungriest nations.

The government has been encouraged to step up efforts to reduce food insecurity in the nation.

In a recent joint study by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Program (WFP), South Sudan topped a list of the world’s hungriest nations.

According to a study released last week, the country’s extreme food insecurity was projected to worsen further, perhaps leading to famine in certain regions of South Sudan.

Edmund Yakani, a civil society leader and executive of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), has called the government to set up concrete objectives to relieve hunger in the next three months for millions of people who have already been uprooted by flash floods and other catastrophes.

“We only have two months until the rains return, and the administration has been silent on any contingency planning or flood response,” Yakani said. Yakani has urged President Salva Kiir’s government to be honest and responsible for the country’s prior $10 million disaster assistance grant.

“There is no public information whether the ten million has been issued or not, but we are obtaining trustworthy information that the money has already been utilized, but we don’t know what it was used for or the outcome or consequences.”

“So, for the purpose of openness and accountability, as well as to increase the response to flood victims and the flood crisis,” the activist said.

Mr. Yakani also encouraged the legislature and the government to devise an immediate strategy to handle the rising hunger and the projected floods during the next rainy season.

“I believe the government should begin purchasing and stockpiling emergency food in flood-affected regions so that they can come to the rescue of these people,” Yakani urged.

Early this month, press sources claimed that over 3000 people deserted their communities in Kapoeta East of Eastern Equatoria State, with others suspected to have crossed into Ethiopia to escape the region’s terrible starvation.

According to UNCHR, nearly 700,000 people were displaced in South Sudan last year as a result of the worst floods in decades.

The most recent FAO and WFP assessment on hunger and early warnings on acute food insecurity from February to May found that the scale and severity of South Sudan’s already extremely high levels of acute food insecurity were expected to deteriorate.