Content_paragraphs: 7 million were classified as facing emergency levels of food insecurity (level 4 of
  
  the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification). Children and pregnant and
  
  lactating women are particularly susceptible to malnutrition. Food insecurity in South
  
  Sudan is largely the result of human action. Cycles of violence and displacement have
  
  made it difficult for families to cultivate land or harvest crops. Unpaid or underpai d
  
  soldiers regularly loot what few food supplies civilians do have. Parties to the conflict
  
  have also deliberately destroyed crops and blocked the delivery of humanitarian
  
  assistance to communities believed to be aligned with their political rivals, which has
  
  led the Human Rights Council to conclude that parties to the conflict have used
  
  starvation as a method of war.9