In addition to the side violence and hunger on a large scale, South Sudan is now reeling from US aid discounts

When Marie Abdullah arrived at Pong Hospital in northern Sudan eight days ago with her 13 -month -old daughter, she was afraid of the worst.

“When I brought her here, I was thinking … this girl will not survive,” she said.

He weighs only five kilograms, and was suffering from anemia and malnutrition, one of the thousands of children with underweight in the country of East Africa, where the United Nations estimated 2.3 million children starving.

Abdullah, 30, usually feeds her family with the money she earns to collect firewood. Walking seven kilometers from her home via Maban Province to arrive at the hospital means losing income days.

When I arrived, Abdullah has found that since some of the financing that the hospital receives from the United States – which is being managed through the United Nations Refugee Commission, deliveries of medicines has been slowed and the number of nurses was cut in half.

This means that there was no available milk for Jote in that evening.

South Sudan has the third largest oil reserves in sub -Saharan Africa, and its government relies almost completely on oil exports to stay on its feet. But years of corruption, a five-year civil war, the adjacent conflict in Sudan-the way of those exports-and the repeated air events that led to the displacement of thousands that left most people in South Sudan dependent on aid.

As of 2024, nine million people, or more than 70 percent of the population, were dependent on the form of external aid, according to the United Nations. Now, this dependence collides with the shrinking resources and the hunger crisis.

United Nations star 7.7 million people face food insecurity this year. This comes just like the United States, according to the World Development Center 40 percent of the country Aid, announced A big background for external aid.

In January, President Donald Trump arrested the majority of US foreign aid. More than 80 percent of the US International Development Agency programs were canceled all over the world by March and the agency closed its doors in July. Analysts say that these discounts in financing can lead to millions of deaths such as malnutrition, tuberculosis and malaria in the coming years.

Unpaid employees

The pressure is visible in the Pong Hospital, the main facility of the Maban Province, less than 20 km from the Sudanese border. Awatif Dawa says that some of the basic medications and equipment that have reached one day – such as sterile equipment used in blood transfusion – are running out now.

“I am very worried because these are very important drugs, and they save for life,” she said.

When she visited CBC in late August, nurses, doctors, detergents and administrative staff were troubled, leaving dirty and nude wings already without observation. Nurse Jacob Zakaria Camis said that their salaries had not been paid in six months.

“My children at home are very hungry,” he said. His salary not only supports his nine children, but also their other relatives.

In cities such as Juba, Bor and Maban, he told CBC News workers that they support up to 50 family members with their salary. At the level of the country, almost foreign aid is a A quarter of the total national income.

Kamis says he is torn between his patients and commitment to his family.

“I am a nurse. I am working to save people’s lives … If I leave my work, people in the hospital will suffer. Therefore, it will not be easy,” he said.

Canadian Danny Glenrayet says that the group has lost nearly a third of the budget of South Sudan due to US aid discounts.

“Our sector is now reeling from the tremendous cuts, yet the needs have increased significantly – due to the long crisis, climate change and the growing cost of living,” he said.

Aid discounts amid other challenges

For local NGOs, the strike was destroyed.

Gloria Soma, Executive Director of the Titi Foundation, said that nearly half of the national relief organizations in southern Sudan had been forced to close it since March. She said that her collection-which focuses on job opportunities, education and food security-lost $ 3.5 million in funds from UNICEF, which disappeared when the United States withdrew its support.

“It takes a long time and many years of hard work to prove that you deserve this box as a local actor. Then suddenly, you were told, it is over,” Soma said. “It is very frustrating.”

Many of these funds were supposed to support the influx of refugees from Sudan, as the war has displaced millions of people since 2023. South Sudan is now hosting more than 500,000 refugees and asylum seekers, most of whom are Sudanese, along with more than two million people internally displaced. This year, the United Nations Refugee Agency lost 30 percent of its financing in South Sudan as a result of the US Development Agency discounts.

“The flow was high and the needs were extreme,” said Soma. “We are already facing our own challenges as a nation. This box (means) was a little reduction.

“Whoever makes all these decisions miles away and does not see the effect on the ground.”

The cuts came in foreign aid, as the country suffers from The economic crisisClimate shocks such as floods and renewal of ethnic violence.

“This year is the worst ever.”

In the Douru Refugee camp, near the northern border with Sudan, Aisha Ajab Together, a livelihood is gathered through cooking and washing dishes at the reception center, through which thousands of Sudanese have passed since the outbreak of the neighboring civil war in 2023. Its salaries no longer cover the cost of food for her family.

“This year is the worst ever,” she said.

According to the African Development Bank, 92 percent of the population of South Sudan now lives below the poverty line, an increase of 12 percent over last year.

“Because of the rainy season … we have visited, but the seeds did not germinate,” he said.

South Sudan is one of the most vulnerable countries of weather, such as floods. The heavy rainy season this year hindered agricultural production, as the United Nations expects More than 400,000 people are displaced due to “deadly” floods by the end of the year. The country is also fighting its worst cholera in decades, which has already acquired more than 1,400 people this year.

Moreover, the country is still unstable politically after seven years from the end of the civil war that killed more than 400,000 people. A The fragile peace agreement The efforts made to create a stable government and a strong civil society hunted and led to a volatile security situation.

The recent recovery to fight in the north of the country cut off the main aid supplies and forced 165,000 of their homes, prompting more people to hunger and need.

“Politics failure”

Human workers say that relying on associated aid to reducing financial support has led to the postponement of hope for increasing stability and security, which will allow the country to be less dependent on foreign donors.

“We were supposed to be always replaced,” said Jason Matos, the development advisor who spent his career in South Sudan, of foreign NGOs that provide many services on which South Sudan relied on.

He said that the relief sector was supposed to be replaced “with a responsible and fast government of its people, by an ethical private sector, by a coherent and emotional society and a material environment capable of managing demands for people to survive.”

Last week, The United Nations investigators have accused the authorities of South Sudan of abandoning billions of dollars in public funds since independence in 2011. In a report issued on Tuesday, the United Nations Human Rights Committee in South Sudan said that officials claim that they used multiple plans to transfer large sums of state revenues over the past decade.

“The (aid) sector has not failed because there are no humanitarian solutions to humanitarian problems. These are policy failures,” said Danny Glenrayet.

“Everything costs more money, and we have less money than ever to do so.”