UN food experts warned on Tuesday of “alarming” levels of starvation in South Sudan with food prices at record highs after two years of civil war marked by atrocities.
Fighting in the war rages despite an August agreement, and food experts have repeatedly warned parts of South Sudan’s northern Unity region are on the brink of famine.
“Alarming reports of starvation, acute malnutrition and catastrophe levels of food insecurity have been reported in areas worst affected by the ongoing violence,” the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a statement.
It warned of “a bleak forecast” for the rest of year, with “rapidly depleting food supplies and a likely protracted lean season”, adding that “food prices have reached record highs.”The world’s youngest country is struggling to stem soaring inflation caused by the war, rampant corruption and the near collapse of the oil industry upon which the vast percentage of government foreign exchange earnings depend.
“Food insecurity has spread to areas previously considered relatively stable, highlighting the cumulative impact of conflict, economic downturn and climactic shocks,” FAO added.
Civil war began in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the poverty-ridden, landlocked nation along ethnic lines.