The First Famine In 6 Years

In South Sudan, Africa, the first famine in 6 years is affirmed. Around 100,000 people in South Sudan are starving and 1 million on the edge of famine. Altogether, 4.9 million people need food immediately. The famine is blamed on the civil war and economic failure. Locations near South Sudan such as Yemen and north-eastern Nigeria are close to famine, but South Sudan beat them to it. In order for a famine to be confirmed, "at least 20% of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope, acute malnutrition rates exceed 30%, [and] the death rate exceeds two persons per day per 10,000 persons" (BBC News). Click here for the full story.

Questions-

1) What can the United States do to help South Sudan and other parts of Africa that are near a famine?

2) Do you think the people of South Sudan could have prevented a famine? Explain

Response -

1) The United States can send food and water their way either by plane or by ships. We can also send in teams of people with supplies.

2) I don't think that the people of South Sudan could've prevented a famine. There are 11.3 million people that live there, so it's already difficult for everyone to obtain food, especially large families and single women with several children. 

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Replies

  • The United States could send food and water but it would be really hard to do with the civil war. I think they could have farmed more but everyone who can farm is probably fighting in the civil war.

  • The United States could send food that we don't use or need to Africa. I think that the US waste a lot of food during the year.  They could save some food, but I don't think they could of prevented it. It looks and seems like an overpopulated and a poor country. 

    • That is a great idea. We do waste a lot of food so we might as well put it towards something good rather than the trash. I agree with you that they could not have prevented it.

  • They can send it but at the end of the day why should it be our problem. They could have prevented it by either letting people leave or buy more food instead of fighting a war.

    • I agree with that. The United States already has enough problems to deal with. Again, I'm not sure where the people would go.

  • The US should definitely send food over or send groups to help with South Sudan's suffering. The famine probably couldn't have been prevented and with their large population it would be hard to obtain enough food. 

  • The US could send people from the red cross with food and water. I think they could have have prevented the famine by planting their own crops, but they're in a sketchy part of the world, where terrorists reign supreme, and with families being so large for a single mother, its pretty hard to provide food to their children. 

  • I think the US could give them food. They could have planted crops in order to get more food for their families

  • I believe the best thing for the us to do to help would be to send food and water and start some programs to help start crop production in any way possible. I understand that there is a lot of people but they could have at least limited the number of people hurt by the famine by having irrigation systems in place incase of a famine.

    • I agree with you on your opinion of starting crop production. Irrigation systems would also help, although I'm not sure where they would get the funding for that to happen.

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