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GENEVA – Famine may be looming in South Sudan, where people are fleeing fighting and leaving their crops to rot in the fields, the World Food Programme said on Friday.
Malnutrition is already above the 15 percent “emergency” level in seven out of South Sudan’s 10 states, and about 30 percent in two of them – Unity and Northern Bahr el Ghazal, WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said.
“Up to 4 million people – over a third of the population in South Sudan – are severely food-insecure, meaning a third of the country doesn’t know where the next meal is coming from,” she said. “The current level of malnutrition is unprecedented.”
Widespread fighting between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir’s and to his former deputy, Riek Machar, means people cannot move around to harvest crops or to get to the market.
In addition, many roads are impassable anyway during the rainy season, so WFP is conducting air drops and air deliveries.
One UN aid convoy of 38 trucks, carrying food for 52 000 people for a month, did reach the town of Yei on Friday. – Reuters
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