The European Union Ambassador to South Sudan Christian Bader on Thursday attended the launch of a dry season livestock vaccination and deworming campaign at Shirikat cattle camp, an outskirt of Juba.

The vaccination and deworming exercise is part of the “Strengthening the resilience of pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in South Sudan and across border areas with Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda” project, worth over $30 million.

The project aims at improving household food security, nutrition and income, and enhancing livelihood resilience of pastoral and agro-pastoral communities, particularly in cross-border areas of South Sudan.

“In times of recurrent food crises, large scale vaccination campaign like this, promoted by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) with support from the European Union and its member states, is key to control and eradicate serious animal diseases,” Ambassador Bader said at the launch.

“Outbreak of animal diseases have devastating effects on the subsistence economies of the agro-pastoral communities and may jeopardize the lives of thousands of vulnerable people. The outbreak of such diseases is also linked to uncontrolled trans-boundary movements of herds.”

The Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, FAO and other partners with support from donors such as the European Union, USAID, Norway, UK and Japan intend to vaccinate and treat 11 million animals in all counties of South Sudan to protect more animals against priority diseases.

National Ministers Hon. Adigo Onyoti of Livestock, Josephine Lagu of Agriculture and Food Security, Michael Chianyjiek of Lands, Kuol Athian of Trade, Josephine Napwon of  Environment,  the Norwegian Ambassador to South Sudan, Siv Kaspersen, Canadian Deputy Head of Cooperation, Chelsea Sayers       and Meshach Malo, Country Director of FAO also attended the launch of the Dry Season vaccination and deworming campaign.