http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2014/s4049516.htm
Senseless starvation in South Sudan
Martin Cuddihy reported this story on Saturday, July 19, 2014 07:36:00
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Our Africa correspondent Martin Cuddihy has just
returned from a trip to war-ravaged, South Sudan.
The conflict there has disrupted supply routes and forced farmers off their
land and as a result, people are starving to death.
Not many Australians see starvation firsthand, but Martin did.
Here are his thoughts.
MARTIN CUDDIHY: We arrive in Akobo, the far east of South Sudan. It's right
on the border with Ethiopia.
The airstrip is a paddock. It's poorly fenced to keep out the wandering
cattle.
When I get out of the plane, I look around. It's hot and the glare is
bright. Then I look down.
I am immediately struck by the soil. It's a dark grey clay. Cracked and dry.
It's the same rich soil of my childhood.
Immediately, I am transported back to the paddocks of the small farm where
I grew up, outside Dalby on the Darling Downs in southern Queensland.
It's one of the richest cotton growing areas in Australia. But it also
grows wheat, barley, sorghum and oats among others.
We are here in Akobo to tell Australian audiences about a famine, and it
doesn't add up.
When I see the Akobo River, it's another contradiction: the waterway is
full and flowing quickly. It's the perfect river for sustainable irrigation.
These thoughts stay with me for the duration of our stay. It's a stay
that's full of conflicting thoughts.
When I see starving women and children, I want to help, but realise telling
their story will do more help than anything I could do on the ground.
Inside the local hospital, there are starving children.
They lie on cheap beds with their mothers. These women are so patient. They
sit there while their children slowly recover, passively staring, as if
somehow accepting of the situation.
I speak to some of the mothers inside and two of them admit to eating grass
and leaves and nothing else.
Another woman is ashamed she can't produce enough breast milk for her baby.
With a healthy three-month-old daughter at home the contrast is too obvious.
The South Sudan government in Juba is not sending supplies to help with the
malnutrition crisis.
Akobo is a rebel-held area. The county commissioner explains that
government salaries are not being paid and other services, like the mobile
phone network, have been shut down.
Almost everything in the market place comes from Ethiopia.
The interview with the commissioner was in a paddock next to the river.
While we were talking, cattle with long horns moved into the shot and
started grazing.
I asked him about them. Why couldn't starving people eat these cattle?
He explained that last year a peace agreement had been negotiated with a
neighbouring tribe. It's the first time in a generation that the two have
not been fighting.
The cattle belong to the neighbours. If they were slaughtered, the fighting
would start anew.
It's yet another complication in an already complicated part of the world.
The UN estimates that 50,000 children will starve to death by the end of
the year if much needed aid doesn't start flowing.
But it's the soil I keep coming back to. They could grow their own crops.
I think how easy it would be to set up a cropping operation here. Easy in
the sense that the crops would grow well and it would be a simple solution
for employment and much needed economic activity in this desperately poor
part of the world.
But then I remember that this is Africa.
Governments change quickly, and they reverse decisions meted out by their
predecessors.
In Kenya, 99 year leases that have been granted that have been overturned.
Economically, agriculture doesn't make sense.
Then there is the fighting. Akobo is in Jonglei state, where some of the
most intense battles have been.
It's wishful thinking. No venture capitalist or intrepid farmer will set up
here.
Instead, people are relying on aid groups to bring in supplies to keep them
alive.
They do invaluable work, but it seems like such a wasted opportunity.
As we leave, I take one last look at the soil and remind myself that I'm
going home soon. Not home to Nairobi - but home-home, Australia, where
there is no fighting and no famine.
This is Martin Cuddihy for Correspondents Report.
Received on Sat Jul 19 2014 - 10:12:07 EDT