A 2-year old drinks an infusion of neem tree leaves, used to treat coughs, diarrhea and vomiting, in Rumbek, South Sudan.
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The officials said the hunger crisis is the worst since fighting started three years ago.
“A formal starvation declaration means people have already started dying of hunger. However, aid organisations can not do this alone”, warned Rehana Zawar, NRC’s Country Director in South Sudan. “Ultimately it is only by laying down arms that the country can be rebuilt and that the hopes that came with independence can be fulfilled”.
United Nations aid agencies have reported that famine has left 100,000 people on the verge of starvation in South Sudan and nearly five million people are need urgent help in the country.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that some 1.4 million children suffering from severe malnutrition could die this year from starvation across the Horn of Africa.
According to DFID, more than six million people in Somalia have no reliable access to food – and 360,000 children are acutely malnourished. This includes at least one million children. But that number could rise to 5.5 million people, or 47 percent of the population, by the summer, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
Severe drought in Somalia, where civil war has raged for more than two decades, resulted in the world’s last major food crisis in 2011.
Action Against Hunger, via its Surveillance and Evaluation Team has conducted several technical assessments in Unity State and other parts of South Sudan, quantifying prevalence of acute malnutrition that far exceeded emergency thresholds. We act where there is great need, regardless of religion, helping people to live a full life, free from poverty. “Delays will surely spell catastrophe and death for whole communities hit by drought and conflict”.
Alongside the additional funds for South Sudan, the United Kingdom has also pledged £100m in new support for Somalia where there are 360,000 acutely malnourished children.
“The extreme level of violence has had a severe impact on people’s ability to meet basic needs such as safe drinking water, food supplies, shelter and health care”, said Nicolas Peissel, MSF project coordinator.
Unity state is South Sudan key oil-producing region, but production is hampered by civil war.
‘Christian Aid has always been stressing the urgency of the situation, and, with this latest announcement, we hope that the attention of the world’s governments and peoples will be drawn again to South Sudan.
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“They’ve lost their livestock, even their farming tools”, he said.
