Save the Children says 2.3 million children under the age of five in South Sudan have been pushed into life threatening acute malnutrition.
Reports indicate that in just over six months, the number of people living in the worst phase of acute hunger in South Sudan has doubled, and the percentage of the population living in crisis levels of acute hunger has also shot up by more than 20 percent.
For months now, South Sudan has been on the brink of reigniting the disastrous five-year civil war that left hundreds of thousands dead before it ended with a peace deal in 2018. The war was fought between forces loyal to Vice President Riek Machar and his rival, President Salva Kiir, often along ethnic lines involving the Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups.
The two men have headed a united government over the past seven years.
However, growing tensions between the factions reached a boiling point when Machar was detained by government forces in March on allegations that he was working to stir up a new rebellion.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says 150,000 people were displaced by armed conflict in South Sudan over the last three months. Those that do not flee are faced with hunger and disease.
“A lack of food, insufficient medical supplies in health facilities and major disease outbreaks including cholera, the number of acutely malnourished children under the age of five across South Sudan has increased from 2.1 million to 2.3 million,” reads the statement from Save the Children. “Children are always the most vulnerable in food crises and, without enough to eat and the right nutritional balance, they are at high risk of becoming acutely malnourished.”
Renewed tensions and conflict in South Sudan come as international humanitarian organizations find themselves struggling with aid cuts and falling donations.
“These latest figures are a cry to donors: please, see what happens to children when you let humanitarian crises take hold. Please, don’t leave the children of South Sudan behind. This is about survival for today – but it is also about hope for tomorrow, to build a better world,” said Chris Nyamandi, Save the Children Country Director in South Sudan.
Cholera has followed thousands of South Sudanese refugees into camps in Ethiopia’s Gambella Regional State, where, in April, local officials told The Reporter they are struggling to keep up with the influx.
