Voice note from Oxfam's Kamba as crisis worsens  

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Oxfam's colleague Kamba talks about the situation in Renk and some of the work Oxfam is doing as resources become more stretched.

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Almost 6 million people - nearly half of the population - in South Sudan are experiencing acute hunger, with little access to clean water or sanitation as funding cuts have stripped away vital humanitarian support just as it is needed the most, Oxfam warned today.

Massive aid cuts have forced humanitarian programmes to significantly scale down, while the number of people in need of support has soared. More than 2 million people are currently displaced due to conflict across the country and widespread flooding; with over a million people fleeing the civil war in neighbouring Sudan.  

This year, South Sudan has seen the least amount of funding ever provided by donors since the country was created in 2011. With only a month of the year left, the country’s $1.6 billion emergency Humanitarian Need and Response Plan for 2025 is less than 40 per cent funded. 

In Renk, one of the country’s most densely populated and vulnerable towns where up to 1,000 people are arriving at transit centres every day, Oxfam is being forced to scale down its operations there by 70 per cent over the next month. Unless new funding is secured by February, Oxfam will have to shut down its operations there entirely. 

"These aid cuts are catastrophic for the millions of people already grappling with extreme hunger and disease. We are now confronted with the heartbreaking reality of having to scale back our humanitarian response and in Renk, potentially have to close entirely in less than three months. It is as though the world is turning its back on those who need help the most, at the very moment when their survival hangs in the balance." - Shabnam Baloch, Oxfam’s South Sudan Country Director.

"Few organizations are now operating, unlike before when there were many. Now there is poor sanitation and hygiene, many water taps no longer work. We fear for the fact we no longer see the help we had before. Households are now minimising the amount of water they use, and we could see a worse situation where there is little or no water at all. Yet water is life." - Maria, a returnee from Sudan.