JUBA – Growing economic hardship is fueling a sharp rise in both child and adult malnutrition in South Sudan, according to the head of the Nutrition Unit at Al Sabah Children’s Hospital.
Speaking on Wednesday, Betty Ashan Ochieng revealed that the hospital is now receiving nearly 100 severely malnourished children every month, with many of their parents also showing clear signs of undernourishment.
Ochieng said delayed salary payments and skyrocketing prices of basic commodities have plunged many families into deeper poverty, leaving them unable to access nutritious food.
“We are seeing many children coming from the outskirts. Most of them are swollen medically, that is oedema,” she explained. “They are lacking food or eating the same food repeatedly. You find two or three children in one family malnourished at the same time, plus the parents. What does that say? There is already a problem in that family.”
She warned that the situation is particularly alarming when both parents are undernourished.
“If the mother and father are malnourished, what about the children?” she asked. “People are not paid for long periods, and in Juba we depend on money we have no gardens.”
Health officials continue to call for urgent interventions as economic instability and high living costs continue to put families at risk across the capital.
