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Starvation Stalks Counties in South Sudan Cut Off by Floods, Insecurity

John Tanza

   In many homes around Jebel Boma County, dinner consists of
   bitter-tasting leaves that can be picked off the bushes outside. The
   leaves areneither filling nor nutritious, but in South Sudan's Jebel
   Boma and Pochalla counties, there's not much else to eat.

   Through a combination of ruinous floods, a lack of decent roads and
   widespread insecurity, the two counties in the Upper Nile region, near
   the border with Ethiopia, have been effectively cut off from the rest
   of South Sudan and a reliable food supply.

   This reporter visited the area during the last week of December and
   witnessed thousands of families who have no food and are surviving
   mainly on leaves or seeds distributed by aid agencies.

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