Tomorrow, Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Africa, will be leading a Congressional delegation (CODEL) mission to war-torn South Sudan and Uganda. There, he will conduct a multi-day human rights mission into U.S. efforts to address the famine in South Sudan, caused primarily by armed conflict, and to evaluate what more can be done to help the victims.

     The conflict, which began in December of 2013, has led more than a million refugees to flee into neighboring countries, such as Uganda.  Smith will be leaving May 27^th and returning June 2^nd.

     “We plan to visit the Bidi-Bidi refugee camp in Uganda—one of the world’s largest such camps, with a population larger than that of Newark and growing by an average 2,800 each day—and meet with individuals who continue to persevere despite being faced with truly monumental obstacles,” Chairman Smith said. “Not only are these refugees at the mercy of international donations to survive, but the citizens of Uganda, a nation that has been spared this level of conflict but faces its own challenges, are being sorely tested to maintain their generosity while still meeting their own needs.”

     More than 28 million people in East Africa are in desperate need of food aid. In Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, the food aid needs have reached emergency levels. More than half of Somalia’s population and nearly two-thirds of South Sudan’s population face life-threatening hunger—issues examined in a March 28^th subcommittee hearing, entitled “East Africa’s Quiet Famine.” 

     Since FY2014, the United States has provided more than $2.2 billion in humanitarian aid, including funding for refugee operations.  In February, the U.S. government pledged more than $25 million in humanitarian aid to Uganda, home now to more than 800,000 South Sudanese refugees.

     “The term ‘famine,’ like the term ‘genocide,’ should not be used lightly,” said Smith. “A famine reduces the ability to work by 25%, stopping economic growth when it is needed most; it decreases the ability to learn, creating a long-lasting barrier to a normal life—even after the famine has ended—and even has a negative effect on mental well-being, with those suffering from famine describing a long term loss of hope and feeling of helplessness.

     “Famine has a detrimental impact across generations and is particularly acute for women and children. Children in the womb won’t have enough nourishment to complete their growth in utero. Most—if not all—will be born stunted, which will be made worse by their continuing lack of nutrition once born. Mothers are severely weakened and childbirth and these important early months are all the more difficult on mother and baby. Both mother and child suffer with damaged immune systems and will be susceptible to diseases such as cholera or acute diarrhea and may die a preventable death.”

     Similarly, residents in northern Nigeria and the Lake Chad basin region are experiencing the fourth largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with 5.2 million people facing food insecurity, largely due to conflict caused by Boko Haram. Conflict in South Sudan and Nigeria have created famine conditions and blocked humanitarian access to significant percentages of those populations. These conflicts, adding to the negative impact of changing weather patterns, may see other African nations facing similar crises in the future in countries ranging from the Central African Republic to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Cote d’Ivoire. 

     In response, Chairman Smith plans to introduce legislation this June to address the threat of regional famine in Africa. Smith also will convene a hearing on Africa’s regional famine crisis next month. The resolution and the hearing will examine innovative means of getting aid to endangered populations more quickly and efforts to enhance the ability of such populations to become more resilient in the face of ongoing crises.

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