By AFP
In Summary
- Thousands have been killed in the conflict in the world's youngest country, while more than 1.5 million have been forced to flee
- The United Nations has around 40 per cent of the cash it needs
Famine will break out in war-torn South Sudan
within weeks unless massive funding for food aid is provided, aid
agencies warned on Thursday.
"If the conflict in South Sudan continues, and
more aid cannot be delivered, then by August it is likely that some
localised areas of South Sudan will slip into famine," warned Britain's
Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), a coalition of 13 major aid
agencies.
Thousands have been killed in the conflict in the
world's youngest country, while more than 1.5 million have been forced
to flee since the war broke out in mid-December. Peace talks are
stalled.
The United Nations has around 40 per cent of the cash it needs, with a shortfall of over a billion dollars (760 million euros).
"There is a very real risk of famine in some
areas," DEC chief Saleh Saeed said, warning that "millions of people are
facing an extreme food crisis."
Famine implies that at least 20 per cent of
households face extreme food shortages, there is acute malnutrition in
over 30 per cent of people, and two deaths per 10,000 people every day,
according to the UN's definition.
Rains this year are hoped to be around average or
slightly below, according to UN experts, with hunger caused by fighting
not extreme climatic conditions.
The DEC coalition, which includes agencies such as
Oxfam, Tearfund and Save the Children "have less than half the money
they need to help prevent the growing food crisis in South Sudan turning
into a catastrophe," Saeed added.
Roads 'rivers of mud'
Fighting between forces of President Salva Kiir
and troops loyal to rebel chief Riek Machar has been marked by
widespread atrocities.
Kiir and Machar committed themselves last month to
a third ceasefire deal, and agreed to forge a transitional government
within 60 days, but fighting continues.
"Although humanitarian agencies are making every
effort to increase aid deliveries, access remains limited by fighting
and the start of the rainy season which has turned many unpaved roads
into rivers of mud," the aid agencies added.
On Monday Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has
earned a reputation for working in some of toughest war zone conditions
across the world, said the situation was the worst it had seen in
years, even during the two decades of war that paved the way for South
Sudan's independence three years ago.
Over 100,000 civilians are crammed inside squalid camps inside UN bases across the country, with numbers continuing to rise.
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