Breaking: Famine declared in South Sudan as 100,000 face starvation

Over 250,000 children severely malnourished and ‘many of them will die,’ says UN

IT>>>   Famine has been declared in two counties of South Sudan, according to an announcement by the county’s government and three UN agencies.

The calamity is the result of prolonged civil war and an entrenched economic crisis that has devastated the war-torn East African nation, the announcement said.

The official classification of famine highlights the human suffering caused by South Sudan’s three-year civil war and even as it is declared President Salva Kiir’s government is blocking food aid to some areas, according to UN officials.

More than 100,000 people in two counties of Unity state are experiencing famine and there are fears that the famine will spread as an additional one million South Sudanese are on the brink of starvation, said the announcement.

“Our worst fears have been realised,” said Serge Tissot, head of the Food and Agriculture Organisation in South Sudan.

He said the war has disrupted the otherwise fertile country, causing civilians to rely on “whatever plants they can find and fish they can catch”.

Roughly 5.5 million people, or about 50 per cent of South Sudan’s population, are expected to be severely food insecure and at risk of death in the coming months, said the report.

Nearly three-quarters of all households in the country suffer from inadequate food, it added.

If food aid does not reach children urgently “many of them will die”, said Jeremy Hopkins, head of the UN children’s agency in South Sudan.