A famine has been declared in South Sudan, the first to be announced in any part of the world in six years.
The South Sudan government and the United Nations report that some 100,000 people faced starvation. On top of that there are about a million more on the brink of famine.
A combination of civil war and an economic collapse have been blamed.
There have been warnings of famine in Yemen, Somalia and north-eastern Nigeria, but South Sudan is the first to declare one.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that 4.9 million people – more than 40 percent of South Sudan’s population – are in urgent need of food.
Head of the WFP, Joyce Luma, said that the famine was “man-made” after three years of conflict across the country stifled crop production and hit farmers and rural livelihoods.
South Sudan also experienced a famine in 1998, during the war for independence from Sudan.
2 Responses
That is so sad!!! While we sit down for dinner with more food than we need they are dying! 🙁
sad isn’t it