Save The Children Warns Of Increased Risk Of Famine In South Sudan

Save the Children today warned of an increased "risk of famine" in South Sudan, where historic floods threaten to hit the country in the coming months.

The youngest state in the world, independent from Sudan since 2011, "is on alert for an imminent human and climate catastrophe in the coming months", according to a statement from the British Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), as South Sudan could suffer "the its worst floods in 60 years, which will bring some parts of the country to the brink of famine."

Save The Children bases its analysis on data from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network - an organization that works to predict and respond to famine and other forms of food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa funded by the United States Government - which "shows that floods massive attacks will contribute to the risk of famine in South Sudan between June 2024 and January 2025."

The people expected to be most affected "have already faced years of conflict, famine, rising food prices, previous floods and, most recently, a recent influx of refugees and returnees following the 15-month conflict in Sudan." .

Famine was declared in South Sudan in 2017 in Leer and Mayendit counties in Unity State.

According to the British NGO, the state of Unity is one of the most vulnerable to famine due to flooding.

Despite its oil wealth, South Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries, has struggled to find its footing since independence in 2011 and is facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

In 2018, a peace agreement put an end to a civil war that had dragged on since 2013, providing for the creation of a Government of national unity, with Salva Kiir as President and his rival Riek Machar as Vice-President, the two men who were at the center of the civil war that caused almost 400,000 deaths and displaced millions.

Since then, the country has been plagued by anarchy, outbreaks of communal violence, chronic political disputes and natural disasters.

According to Save the Children, around nine million people - 75% of the population - including almost five million children, are in need of humanitarian assistance.

The crisis is worsened by the return of hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese refugees who fled the brutal war in Sudan.

South Sudan was also deprived of vital oil revenue due to the shutdown of a damaged pipeline in Sudan.