i have to read more widely to forge a new future young people here definitely seem keen to read this. group that i hope at least that iraq's literary heritage is being rekindled by a new generation who say their country's future stability and growth will be helped by young iraqis reading and writing more. back dad. take you through some of the headlines here now to syria now 3 un peacekeepers have been killed in central african republic rebels are advancing ahead of sunday's election the constitutional court is set to decide on whether to 1st phone the vote catherine sawyer has more from bungie. was.

already here in the white. more areas of the u.k. are entering the highest level of crown of virus restrictions shutting non-essential business isn't forcing people to stay at home northern ireland scotland and large areas of england joining the regions already under the tear for rules they've been reintroduced to combat an alarming rise in fractions blamed on the spread of a new more virulent strain of the virus. and in france of confirmed their 1st cases

of all contagious coronavirus mutation more than 50 countries maintaining travel bans for the u.k. the u.s. city of nashville is under a curfew after a motor home exploded injuring 3 people were recorded bomb warning was played beforehand it's not yet known who was responsible to palestinians including a 6 year old child have been injured after israel launched air strikes on the gaza strip some empty sites belonging to hamas and islamic jihad were targeted at the hospital damaged earlier these daily army accused her mass of firing 2 rockets towards southern israel but it says they were intercepted. phone headlines it's inside story next here on al-jazeera so stay with us for. teaching you just the right english streaming on on you tube channel. last thousands of our programs will meet with documentaries and.

subscribe to eugene. al jazeera english. has the world ignored south sudan the countries facing the stream hunger and aid agencies are warning of dire consequences if violence carries on so what can be done to save africa's youngest country this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. humanitarian groups are warning 60 percent of south sudan's population with face catastrophic famine by the middle of next year

that's if 8 can't reach areas affected by floods violence and the pandemic a joint report by 3 u.n. agencies 6 and a half 1000000 people in the region are facing starvation of that number could rise by almost a 1000000 by july aid agencies blame the worsening situation on violence that's made it impossible to produce food and dangerous and difficult to deliver last month the u.n. released $7000000.00 in emergency funding to try to avert famine the country is still struggling to emerge from a 6 year civil war that killed tens of thousands of people. we'll bring in our guests shortly but 1st let's take a look at the history of africa's youngest country in july 2011 south sudan gained independence from sudan but war broke out 2 years later when president salva kiir accuse his former deputy and former rebel leader regular charge of plotting

a coup the fighting kills about $400000.00 people and displaced millions ceasefire was signed in generator $1014.00 but was violated several times and further talks failed to and the violence in september 2018 kira agreed to set up a unity government with machar but that was delayed as they try to resolve our standing disputes in february the pair finally formed a unity government declared an and to the civil war. joining me now are our guests in georgia matthew hollingworth south sudan country director for the world food program in oxford douglas johnson former member of the boundary commission and author of south sudan in your history for a new nation also enjoy over jeffords you security analyst and director of the

south sudan action network on small arms welcome to your matthew united nations agencies have been saying for quite some time that areas in south sudan are on the brink of famine how where the response didn't really match with the magnitude of the problem why's that. i think. hello to everybody i sadly i think we've been warning for a number of months now most of this year that the tribulation of national subnational and localized conflict in the country married to a 2nd year of unprecedented flooding has meant that this country is now facing food insecurity of scale but it has not faced before more than 7 and a half or more or less than a half 1000000 people expected to need food assistance by the lean season of 2021

is an unprecedented level and what we have been struggling to do is to reach areas of the country where the most vulnerable are living primarily because of conflict earlier in this year and then by floods when the conflict wait we've also been struggling to get the kinds of resources we need to give people a full ration to help them get on their feet and to help them rebuild their lives after times of conflict and not a disaster when you add to this year's economic collapse which is also largely due to private 19 the impact of that but also diminishing oil reserves or oil resources and you've got a recipe for a food security disaster in south sudan douglas you have climate change you have violence have instability and this is a remembering reminder for a nation of that about 9 years ago was rising hopes among the international community that it could become

a vibrant new democracy in the african continent what do you think has been completely wrong with the station this is reminds me of my own time working with more of her program during the operation might find sudan where we've had a similar. simoneau periods where there been extreme fighting. hand demick. epidemic pandemic diseases this actually among livestock. also fire fighting now factional fighting so it's 2 things i think are important to think about more or to suggest in this current problem is that one there's been a failure of governance and part of that is the inability to create a disciplined national army a lot of the fighting and this impression of civilians which is prevented

cultivation or colon prevented harvest has been down to elements of the sudan people south sudan defense force rampaging through civilian areas and also in opposition with armed groups who are either there to protect themselves or to take advantage of chaos so that's a failure of governance and that's a failure of the current government and we shouldn't make any excuses for them this is something that should have been. attempted and should have been set up with discipline national army a long time ago as far as the other problems. the area of john lay for instance is been an area that has experienced extreme violence before that over into it with the communication networks etc but you know there are also

other areas that are usually very have high production the communal disturb the by the fighting also there has been a failure of the governor to provide. no communication networks road networks the sorts of things that are needed to know right suppliers to from one post to another let me go to jeffrey and joe by jeffrey why is the government in a way or another not willing to recognize the scale of the famine in the country well i wouldn't enter into the politics of declare it's an unfair move to a country. but. for those who want to know whether people are starving or not. you can visit where it is communities live and speak to them directly because. i don't want it to be a jiffy declaring them in south sudan or it is in cities but let's.

recognize that them in that might be longing. is is a product of displacement and that this sort of displacement is not new to south sudan it was there even before the treaty that theme civil war and. we'd see it is something around intercommunal about homes in the absence of state security communities get up tact and they seek revenge and in these cycle of bends. which often is the manifest in form of let's kill violence and use of military. weapons that fox and. you know. but it's just looking for their survival but not you know

growing crops as done in other parts of the world and jungle is that is notorious for so that's a function of into communal violence. not if the government did not indorse they the famine review committee's report that was released this month by the integrated for security phase classification is the government trying to say this has been blown 'd out of proportion by the international agencies. and i think there is consensus as you know between the famine review committee which is an independent group of experts and the can be called in to look at data when there isn't consensus of the country level and they haven't agreed with that but i think it's more important to look at what has been agree there is consensus on the 7240000 people who are in severe pig. certain security there is consensus on that there is consensus that there are 5 or 6 locations in the country with puppets of famine and

there isn't consensus on this scale of that like you would have found in or risk of . but there is consensus on the account the fact there is a very significant price so that we need to respond so if we are to prevent what would be a full blown famine we're not talking about declaring a full blown found at this stage but we're talking about the likelihood of famine and the risk of famine and what we can do to respond to just stop it in its tracks at that point so there's not an easy and you've heard why from from the other panelists aryans all you know south sudan is a country 2 and a half times the size of big of the united kingdom there's 200 kilometers of paved roads in the whole country this is an incredibly difficult country to move around when this piece it's an incredibly difficult country to move things around when there are natural disasters to cope with and we have east and some of these

locations this year and we've been facing up to them i mean it's. and all of the complexities that every 19 strain are in terms of of supply chain interruption you've got communities that did not or could not cultivate land this year because of fighting communities that lost their harvests to flooding you've got communities that lost their cattle and the sheep and their goats to flooding and so you've got you know like i said this recipe for disaster and that we are going to need to respond and the politics aside that's already going to be very complicated it will be impossible unless there is stability and peace in those areas so i agree that such an important aspect asked to be an understanding that the weapons need to be put down so that humanitarian aid and development is i'm base building where

there's going to get on with their jobs and bringing communities together electing communities and trying to give them the livelihood that will improve them. douglas for the time being the international community has been putting more pressure when all the parties in south sudan to set aside their differences rein in violence and allow the aid agencies to operate on the ground you look at the hard hit areas further expand into words what jungly of norther buttle has the. states we're talking about the situation there could easily spin out of control and become a full blown famine you want yes i mean this is want to know what everybody is trying to prevent and i honestly don't understand the reluctance of the current government or even some of the opposition groups who are refusing to recognize that. i just remember what we used to do in

operation might find sudan and and know if you can get access to some of the reports from our home 2220 or so years ago you see one assume possible at that time during a war situation will earn environmental disasters. contributed to it. and so again i do not understand some of the people who are involved in the government were very much involved in the operation lifeline sudan episodes negotiating with the un with world food program and various other. agencies so they have the experience of how to deal with these combination of disasters they have the background and experience and it's something that the they should be able to draw on to prevent this fire in our control as you say jeffrey when you look at what is happening on the ground the u.n.

is saying that it's patrols are now in place to monitor areas like moneyball they will go. your way and the white and that's where the tension between the communities has been on the rise with that be on its own enough to contain the crisis and rein in the tension which has been. going up. i think the crisis. might be centered in those areas but it has to be you know not. focused like the whole of jungle or state because this community is how big wrecking balance against each other. across it's not only the communities. in the us went in a terrorist attack in people or you know the grid up in boredom sets of i didn't

read it where is the is is hardly heat but. you know double tragedy of both violence and flat so out said the focus needs to be didn't post it and of and of course being the. hard he'd intercommunal violence the governments to. really focus on quickly dominating violence that by the way of nigger sick of us are getting in existence and are some cease fire of some sort of communities because we have to not that good peace agreement and do not have you know any frame up a ceasefire among communities but that's why we see it much as you know violence between and among the parties of the peace agreement that has dramatically gone down they documented violence has persisted throughout so it has to begin by negotiating some sort of cease fire and there. within that you know

a couple exist on the sort of access for humanitarian actors and then another dialogue segment focusing on addressing the real root causes of these into communal violence and of course one of it eases the culture of impunity. well you know and you can organize and good to have every community and direct balances and come back to the hall and see it without any fear of what's going to be the door instead of justice and that has to stop and so on big government and you know these actors need to niggle see if that sort of arrangement are right matthew the world food program says it needs something like almost $500000000.00 over the next 6 months to be able to cope with the magnitude of this . disaster now do you think the international community is expressing and up it-i

to step in against a backdrop of what we're seeing on the ground. i mean i think we have enormously generous donors member states that have stood by south sudan when it was southern sudan joining the operation lifeline program that was referred to earlier and since independence in 2011 and those those member states are still wanting to see a successful country but he continued to grow to be prosperous to be peaceful and if they can see if those donors can see that this country is going to be stable and that unity will maintain they'll continue to support but i fear that if they see that they're going to be throwing good money after bad they want i mean i think it's really important just following on from from the last question that i mean in areas like the greater people are going to sort of area in great jungle

a state. these are areas where you know the dialogue side of things has been going and fits and starts many years for conflict cheap on recurring and it's that persistent and recurring conflict that is part of the cause of what we're seeing the catastrophic food insecurity in areas that we're seeing not just in jungle a state this year that's that has to change but the importance for people living in those areas course is that i mean frankly you can't eat you know you can't live off those families those communities any jobs at those families those communities they need a livelihood they need to be connected to market so that they can actually access the the sort of basic staples which are available in other parts of the country that are less remote now but without sort of that service to the basic services to market forces ringback i mean you know you're going to see it in tin you ation of

the prices is as was rightly said without dealing. are always in the deprivation marginalization of some of these without dealing with that sadly it's going to be more assistance otoh is going to be provoked me and the last element that's that's the equation we need to turn on its head let's talk about that particular equation and then we go to the douglas douglas let's face it one of the biggest problems here is the huge differences between silva care and eric machar do you think that we will be able in the near future to convince these 2 rivals to set aside their differences more forward turn a chapter pave the way for stability and peace in south sudan. well i know that people have been trying to persuade them to put aside their differences and. know has been a feeling of broadly within the country and outside of the country that actually

both men have have a long run in the history of south sudan in governance in one way or another and if they both agreed to an honorable retirement and alone and other people to i'm a forward to being to deal with these problems that might be the beginning of a real sense of not just of daro. trying to tackle the problems. and the divorce them from from. us through to move on from the problems that occurred were created within the or ocean struck. i would just like to say note that what matthew centers is point true about the importance of markets and livelihood and i would point out that there are signs within your own difference of 1000000 votes that are trying to not just foster dialogue to change the equation

between the communities the small they need support they need recognition but there is something there within the civilian population john lennon and how the parts of subs and individuals and groups that are willing to try to. carve out a new path and change the deep patterns of the servants and destruction ok jeffrey we've been talking about the unity government one of the key components of that deal was basically the security a range of events you need to have a professional army of that brings about stability and security how can you achieve that when the country is divided along ethnic tribal lines. well it is. definitely unrealistic to expect people who are

who have been you know on each other starts to come together very soon. after you know their last battle and then form a commutative that's a gun at me. but it is definitely. something that has to be a long term goal because we need you know some sort of needs an army that reflects its don't pretty and that you know i can't be you know disfigured and and etc but the problem here is that the perkiest tend to use you know want the easy of you know graduating do national necessary unify powers have their purposes for for for for progress in implementing some of the peace agreement if then you soused that does not require the necessary unified force not being implemented for

example for example just you not just appointing the. the officers not the department you know the governor of the pretty governors commissioners and which does not require you know of. a unified force is not being dense so this reason is that the question of their willingness of the parties to see i'm going to amend a piece that it be sacrament let me go to matthew matthew this is going to be my last question in less than a minute if you don mind now this is the dry season when people would be moving from one area to another. towards sources of water how we are your concerned at this particular juncture. i mean the last time i was in people was in october and it was still covered in water and then in december i traveled to other parts of or great people as well as to other parts jungle and whatever community respects here and these are communities that were the term used before were at each other's

throats previously and i heard the same story their greatest fear is the moment their land starts to dry that there will be more fighting and that fighting will happen not just the political reduced or not at because of political reasons but because of necessity they will need to find ways to. raise other cattle to bring cattle back because they lost so many cattle in the floods in the previous i'd say what we mustn't allow is the deprivation to kick off another round of fighting and to be manipulated into something more political and something greater thank you so it's are wrong to continue the relief act or ations that we've already been started and we've already been working throughout the whole period but to gear it up and raise our game because i mean food assistance people out but their future their future relies on east and the peace relies on this debate and the politically of

communities to feed themselves look after themselves and meet their basic needs to know how to live with them matthew worth douglas chance and geoff edgers i really appreciate your insight thank you and thank you for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website dot com for further discussion got our facebook page that's facebook dot com for was last a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter i'll handle his at a.j. and say sorry from the hashemite of our own the entire team here in doha by phone or. discovered kazakstan that as a new strategic location at the crossroads of europe and asia. develop and grow your business. in the leading logistics trade and business harbor in 1st

in a country with a great business climate robust legal system and tax regime and advantageous investment incentives employ a well educated highly skilled and multilingual workforce. by investing in kazakstan you invest in the largest economy of the region where the growth and prosperity of your business will always be our key priority. invest in kazakstan seize the best opportunities in the heart of eurasia. long before the cold the crisis broke the world was grappling with another global crisis the climate breakdown destruction of nature can lead to destruction all hail the lockdown examines links between these 2 crises and asks why it took a pandemic to bring on changes that should have been made long ago all these things

we were told were completely impossible suddenly become possible connected to the wake up call for can't be ignored on a just. war. or . violence escalates in the central african republic 3 un peacekeepers are killed ahead of sunday's elections. and sam is a band this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up the new coronavirus variant spreads further japan and france report the 1st cases of the new strain. the mystery around the national explosion deepens what could be human remains are found at the scene of the last. christmas.