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At least 40,000 dying of starvation in South Sudan, UN reports

Monday, 08 February 2016 3:04 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 08 February 2016 3:04 PM ]

A file picture taken on October 9, 2015 shows a two-month-old girl with a severe malnutrition lying on a bed next to her mother at the Aweil State Hospital in South Sudan. ©AFP

The United Nations has voiced concern over the severe food crisis in South Sudan’s war-ravaged areas, saying a catastrophic situation awaits tens of thousands of civilians grappling with malnutrition in the African state.

“Nearly 25 percent of the country’s population remain in urgent need of food assistance, and at least 40,000 people are on the brink of catastrophe,” the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN children’s fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Program (WFP) said in a joint statement issued on Monday.

According to Jonathan Veitch, the UNICEF representative in South Sudan, “Families have been doing everything they can to survive, but they are now running out of options.”

Sources say those worst-affected regions are in the northern battleground state of Unity, once the country’s key oil-producing region, which has been a scene of heavy clashes between government troops and rebels.

The counties of Leer, Guit, Koch and Mayendit have also been reported as badly affected areas.

A large number of people wait for Red Cross food air-drops outside Thonyor in South Sudan on February 3, 2016. ©AFP

Veitch further called for “unrestricted access” to the crisis-hit zones, saying, “Many of the areas where the needs are greatest are out of reach because of” the ongoing violence between government troops and rebel forces.

The three UN bodies had put the number of those facing starvation in South Sudan at 30,000 in a report last October.

The new warning comes three months after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed hunger assessment, said “there is a concrete risk of famine” if urgent humanitarian aid is not provided in war-zone areas.

South Sudan plunged into chaos in December 2013, when fighting erupted between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors led by his former deputy, Riek Machar, around Juba.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than two million people.

The ongoing violence in South Sudan comes despite a ceasefire agreement reached between government troops and rebels last August. Both sides have on numerous occasions traded accusations of violating the internationally-mediated accord.

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