24 June, 2017
An estimated 6 million people, half the population, are expected to be severely food insecure this month and next, up from 5.5 million in May, a UN-backed food security report said.
According to the United Nations agencies and government, about 45,000 people will still be facing humanitarian catastrophe in Leer, Koch, and Mayendit Counties in former Unity State, and Ayod in in former Jonglei State. It is believed that around 45,000 people here are facing famine-like conditions.
The term starvation is used according to a globally agreed scale determined by levels of access to food, acute malnutrition and daily deaths due to hunger.
The South Sudanese government welcomed and commended, on Wednesday, the joint national and global efforts collaboratively exerted to avert starvation from occurring in the east African country.
"The gains made in the famine-affected counties show what can be achieved when sustained assistance reaches families".
The country's government said its urgent response to the emergency situation averted a humanitarian catastrophe in the country.
"Even though we've taken it (famine) off the table, we have more people in Phase 4 than ever before", said Joyce Luma, WFP's country director.
The war is now spreading across the country and, the cardinal said, "is producing victims" and "has forced one and a half million people to leave their villages" while "death and desperation afflict the population".
In the 2015 to 2016 fiscal year, Canada's worldwide development assistance to South Sudan totalled over $91 million, Global Affairs said.
The IPC report says the current situation in the areas has improved, however, there are certain areas still in critical condition.
In the south-west, until recently the country's bread basket, there are unprecedented levels of hunger caused largely by conflict.
Farming communities have been driven from their homes, leaving fields unharvested and markets disrupted, and food prices have soared.
The Western Upper Nile region is equally experiencing food insecurity, especially in Manyo, Panyikang, and Fashoda where large displacements have occurred due to the ongoing armed conflict.
More than four million South Sudanese have been internally displaced and another two million have fled the country as refugees because of the four-year-old civil war.
So far this year, UNICEF, together with partners, has treated more than 76,000 children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM). The UN Children's Fund has a target for the year of reaching 700,000 malnourished children across the country. 25,000 people in former Unity State and 20,000 people in Jonglei, where the situation has rapidly deteriorated because of conflict that displaced many people.
