Famine has been declared in two counties of South Sudan, the result of prolonged civil war and an entrenched economic crisis that has devastated the war-torn East African nation.
The official classification of famine highlights the human suffering caused by South Sudan’s three-year civil war and even as it is declared South Sudanese 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 1 million South Sudanese are on the brink of starvation, a report by South Sudan’s government and three UN agencies said.
“Our worst fears have been realized,” said Serge Tissot, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s office 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.”
About 5.5 million people, or about 50 percent of South Sudan’s population, are expected to be severely food insecure and at risk of death in the coming months, the report said.
It added that nearly three-quarters of all households in the country suffer from inadequate food.
If food aid does not reach children urgently “many of them will die,” said Jeremy Hopkins, head of the UNICEF office in South Sudan.
More than 250,000 children are severely malnourished, Hopkins said, meaning they are at risk of death.
It is not the first time South Sudan has experienced starvation. When it fought for independence from Sudan in 1998, the territory suffered from a famine spurred by civil war.
Anywhere from 70,000 to several hundred thousand people died during that famine.
However, yesterday’s declaration of starvation is solely South Sudan’s creation, and a UN official blamed the country’s politicians for the humanitarian crisis.
“This famine is man-made,” said Joyce Luma, head of the UN World Food Programme’s office in South Sudan. “There is only so much that humanitarian assistance can achieve in the absence of meaningful peace and security.”
Perhaps nowhere else has civil war caused such a drastic decline in South Sudan’s food security than in Central Equatoria state, the report said.
Traditionally South Sudan’s breadbasket, Central Equatoria has been hit by fighting and ethnically targeted killings that began in July last year and have displaced more than half a million residents and disrupted agricultural production.
As a result, more than one-third of Central Equatoria’s population is now facing crisis or emergency levels of hunger, according to the report.
South Sudan’s widespread hunger has been compounded by an economic crisis as well.
The nation is experiencing severe inflation and the value of its currency has plummeted 800 percent in the past year, which has made food unaffordable for many families.
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