The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Monday said over 30,000 people suffering from hunger in South Sudan are able to grow more of their own food, thanks to a donation from Pope Francis.
According to FAO South Sudan representative Serge Tissot, thanks to Pope Francis’ contribution, more people in Yei will be able to re-start growing their own food to stave off the worst ravages of hunger.
FAO said a 25,000-euro (29,000-dollars) personal donation from Francis has funded the distribution of vegetable-growing kits in the war-ravaged county of Yei.
“The money is being used to provide the kits and agricultural hand tools in an area where livelihoods such as farming have been wiped out by fighting.
“In Yei’s Central Equatoria state about 145,000 people are facing emergency levels of food insecurity, one step below famine on the internationally-agreed scale of hunger crises,’’ FAO said.
South Sudan is in the midst of a bloody civil war, in which tens of thousands have been killed since a 2013 split between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar. (dpa/NAN)