South Sudan Faces Imminent Famine: UN Agencies

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Residents of 11 of the 13 counties in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state are now facing emergency levels of hunger, the World Food Programme, the UN Children’s Fund, and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations said in a joint statement.

Three United Nations agencies warned Thursday of imminent famine in a conflict-hit region of South Sudan.

Residents of 11 of the 13 counties in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state are now facing emergency levels of hunger, the World Food Programme, the UN Children’s Fund, and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations said in a joint statement.

The Upper Nile is the scene of fighting between government troops and armed militias opposing the government of President Salva Kiir. Fighting has intensified in recent months, “destroying homes, disrupting livelihoods and preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid,” the statement said.

Some 32,000 people are suffering from hunger in conditions described as “catastrophic” , three times more than previously predicted.

Although other parts of South Sudan are seeing improvements in their food security, approximately 57% of the East African country’s 11.5 million people face acute food insecurity.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the main international system for designating hunger crises, considers a region to be in a famine situation when three conditions are met: 20% of households are extremely short of food, or essentially starving; at least 30% of children are acutely malnourished or wasted, meaning they are too thin for their height; and two adults or four children per 10,000 people die each day from hunger and its complications.

The CIP brings together experts from more than 20 organisations, including United Nations agencies, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, the European Union, and the World Bank.

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Nasir, one of the counties under famine alert, is a stronghold of anti-government militias and the scene of fighting that has caused many civilian casualties.