At least 1,000 people are estimated to have abandoned their homes fleeing to urban areas due to food shortages in Budi County of Eastern Equatoria.
Komou Boma Area Chief Celestino Lokai reported the hunger threat that drove hundreds to an urban exodus, Emmanuel Radio reported.
The Boma chief disclosed the hunger disaster on Saturday during the handover of Kiviva Rock Water Catchment Project in Kimotong Payam, Budi County.
Chief Lokai said many youths left the rural areas in groups of ten, 20, 40 and 50 and never returned home.
He added that many able bodied men and women went to Kapoeta South, Kapoeta North, Chukudum and Torit in search of food.
Chief Lokai said the remaining population can’t survive on the water provided by Caritas Switzerland-Luxembourg but need food.
He appealed to the Catholic charity to rescue the community with food.
Kimotong payam women representative Lucia Nayepwo Anthony cited unreliable rainfalls that caused crop failure as the main cause for the hunger threat.
She said looming hunger caused massive relocation from villages to towns.
Ms Nayepwo added that many villages in Komou Boma of Kimotong payam in Budi County were abandoned.