CARE has joined other leading aid agencies in warning that parts of South Sudan – already the world’s worst food crisis – could fall into famine early next year if the nine-month long conflict escalates as expected.
More than two million people are facing severe food insecurity in South Sudan. Famine has been narrowly avoided in 2014. As the dry season begins, the brutal conflict that provoked this disaster is about to get worse.
“We stay in our tent every night because bad things happen at night here. It’s not safe,” says Josephine, who sits with her four children in a tent the size of a small closet.
The tension on the streets of the southern Turkish border town of Suruç, is evident by the number of tanks rolling heavily through the town. Just off a central street my colleagues are making the final preparations for the distribution of blankets in the recently established refugee camp. My attention is diverted, when an elderly man, clearly respected in the newly thrown together community, parted the people and headed towards me.
‘Terrified, exhausted and often with no idea where to go next’, more than 140,000 people who have fled the violence in Kobane for Turkey are in desperate need of support from the international community.
„Where are you going?“ My friend’s face turns into a question mark when I tell him about my planned work travel for CARE. “To Chad”, I repeat. Silence. Then: „And what is going on there?“
On September 16th, the northern Syrian town of Kobane, - a town predominantly populated with Kurdish people, on the Turkey border came under siege. Since then, reports state that more than 150,000 refugees have flooded into Turkey. CARE International UK’s Danielle Spencer was part of the CARE Emergency assessment team on the ground.
In the village of Mughayrieh in Mount Lebanon lives Muna, a mother of four boys who fled Syria seven months ago. “I have not heard from my husband in more than three years since we fled Syria,” says Muna.
With harvesting season approaching, CARE International has called for urgent action to reduce needless deaths from hunger and malnutrition.
In FY2023, CARE worked around the world, contributing to saving lives, fighting poverty, and increasing social justice.
