Millions in South Sudan in Urgent Need of Food, U.N. Warns
Malnutrition rates have soared above emergency levels, and countless people have died of hunger, United Nations officials said.
Serge Tissot said that Our worst fears have been realized,
20, 2017
NAIROBI, Kenya — War and a collapsing economy have set off a famine in South Sudan, the
United Nations announced on Monday, and millions of people are in urgent need of food.
The United Nations has more than 10,000 peacekeepers in South Sudan, which is relatively few for a rugged country nearly the size of Texas,
that is crawling with armed groups that keep splintering.
Battles are still raging in many parts of South Sudan, and United Nations officials fear the famine could soon spread.
The United Nations considers famine a technical term, and for one to be declared, malnutrition and death rates have to exceed certain thresholds.
So far, the famine has affected a relatively small area in the northern part of the country,
where the conflict between the government and rebel groups has been most intense.
