Juba: The UN has shown concern over South Sudan war zones where at least 40,000 people are being starved to death due to severe food crisis. The United Nations said to rival forces to let aid in.
The on going civil war has blocked the food supplies which leads the tens of thousands of civilians combat with malnutrition.
The UN said, the conditions are “escalating,” with already over 2.8 million people needing aid, almost a quarter of the country.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN children’s agency UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a joint statement that. “Nearly 25 percent of the country’s population remain in urgent need of food assistance, and at least 40,000 people are on the brink of catastrophe.”
Jonathan Veitch UNICEF country chief said.“Families have been doing everything they can to survive, but they are now running out of options,” he added.“Many of the areas where the needs are greatest are out of reach because of the security situation. It is crucial that we are given unrestricted access now.”
last year in the month of October the UN bodies had put the number of those facing starvation in South Sudan at 30,000.
The new warning comes three months after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed hunger assessment, said “there is a concrete risk of famine” if urgent humanitarian aid is not provided in war-zone areas.
The fight which has erupted in December 2013 between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors led by his former deputy, Riek Machar, around Juba has led the South Sudan into chaos.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than two million people.
The army and rebels have repeatedly accused each other of breaking an internationally-brokered August cease-fire.