File photo taken on October 11, 2016 shows a mother breastfeeding her child suffering from acute malnutrition at the clinic run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Aweil, northern Bahr al-Ghazal, South Sudan. The government declared famine on February 20, 2017 in parts of the country following more than three years of war. AFP PHOTO

South Sudan's government said Monday that more than three years of war have led to famine in parts of the nation, a tragedy aid agencies criticised as "man-made".

Isaiah Chol Aruai, the chairman of South Sudan National Bureau of Statistics, said some parts of the northern Greater Unity region "are classified in famine, or... risk of famine".

A joint press statement from aid agencies said 100,000 people were affected by the famine, which threatened another one million people in the coming months.

"A formal famine declaration means people have already started dying of hunger. The situation is the worst hunger catastrophe since fighting erupted more than three years ago," said the statement signed by the World Food Programme (WFP), UN children's agency UNICEF and the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).

South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, was engulfed by civil war in 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his rival and former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup against him.

An August 2015 peace deal was left in tatters when fighting broke out in Juba in July last year.

Violence — initially between ethnic Dinka supporters of Kiir and ethnic Nuer supporters of Machar — has since spread to other parts of the country, engulfing other ethnic groups and grievances.

The United Nations has warned of potential genocide and ethnic cleansing, and there is no prospect of peace in sight.

Unity State, a traditional Nuer homeland and birthplace of Machar, has been one of the flashpoints in the conflict.

"The convergence of evidence shows that the long term effects of the conflict coupled with high food prices, economic crisis, low agricultural production and depleted livelihood options" have resulted in 4.9 million people going hungry, Aruai said.

The famine classification is according to an internationally recognised sliding scale of hunger in which an extreme lack of food has lead to starvation and death.

"The main tragedy of the report that has been launched today... is that the problem is man-made," said Eugene Owusu, the United Nation's Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan.

"The underlining drivers have been there for some time and we have all known that we have a major food crisis." </s> South Sudan on Monday declared famine in some parts of the country, with more than three years of war leaving nearly 5 million hungry in what aid groups called a “man-made” tragedy.

Isaiah Chol Aruai, chairman of South Sudan’s National Bureau of Statistics, said some parts of the northern Greater Unity region “are classified in famine, or … risk of famine”.

Aid agencies said 100,000 people were affected by the famine, which threaten to affect a further 1 million people in the coming months.

“A formal famine declaration means people have already started dying of hunger. The situation is the worst hunger catastrophe since fighting erupted more than three years ago,” said a statement by the World Food Programme (WFP),UNICEF and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, was engulfed by civil war in 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his rival and former deputy, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup against him.

An August 2015 peace deal was left in tatters when fighting broke out in Juba in July last year.

Violence — initially between ethnic Dinka supporters of Kiir and ethnic Nuer supporters of Machar — has since spread to other parts of the country, engulfing other ethnic groups and grievances.

The United Nations has warned of potential genocide and ethnic cleansing and there is no prospect of peace in sight.

Oil-rich Unity State, a traditional Nuer homeland and Machar’s birthplace, has been one of the flash-points in the conflict and has flipped several times between government and rebel forces.

“The convergence of evidence shows that the long-term effects of the conflict coupled with high food prices, economic crisis, low agricultural production and depleted livelihood options” have resulted in 4.9 million people going hungry, Aruai said.

That figure represents 42 percent of the country’s population.

The famine classification is made according to an internationally recognized sliding scale of hunger in which an extreme lack of food has led to starvation and death.

“The main tragedy of the report that has been launched today … is that the problem is man-made,” said Eugene Owusu, the United Nation’s humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan.

“The underlining drivers have been there for some time and we have all known that we have a major food crisis.”

He said conflict and insecurity for humanitarian workers, who had suffered attacks while carrying out their work, and the looting of “humanitarian assets” had exacerbated the crisis.

In September, several aid agencies had to pull out of the famine-hit area of Leer because of escalating fighting between the two forces.

“I would like to use this opportunity to call on the government, the warring parties and all actors to support humanitarians to provide the necessary access so we can continue to bring lifesaving services to those in need,” Owusu said.

According to aid groups, the number of people facing hunger is expected to rise to 5.5 million at the height of the lean season in July if nothing is done to curb the spread of the food crisis.

“Many families have exhausted every means they have to survive,” said the FAO’s representative in South Sudan, Serge Tissot.

“The people are predominantly farmers and war has disrupted agriculture. They’ve lost their livestock, even their farming tools. For months there has been a total reliance on whatever plants they can find and fish they can catch.”

The famine declaration comes as millions across the Horn of Africa are going hungry due to a devastating drought following two failed rainy seasons.

The U.N. said Monday it is “scaling up assistance and protection” in Somalia, as about 6.2 million Somalis, or half the country’s population, is in need of humanitarian assistance.

Nearly 1 million children will be acutely malnourished.

“The drought situation is deteriorating rapidly,” said Peter de Clercq, the humanitarian coordinator for Somalia. “Accelerated scale-up … assistance is required to avoid a dramatic rise in the number of malnourished children and a spike in mortality.”

Famine last hit the region six years ago, killing an estimated 260,000 people in Somalia.

The drought has also affected food security in South Sudan, however the biggest contributor to the famine is the inability of aid agencies to reach areas where the economy has collapsed due to the war. </s> Famine has been declared in parts of South Sudan, where UN agencies warned on Monday that war and a collapsing economy have left 100,000 people facing starvation.

A further 1 million people were classified as being on the brink of famine, according to the World Food Programme (WFP) and other UN bodies. Unimpeded humanitarian access was urgently needed to reverse “an escalating catastrophe”, they added.

How to donate: South Sudan famine and Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria food crises Read more

The famine is the first to be declared since 2011 in Somalia, where more than a quarter of a million people are estimated to have died between October 2010 and April 2012.

The UN has warned that three other countries - Yemen, Somalia and Nigeria - are at risk of famine.

Famine has been declared in parts of Unity State in the northern-central part of South Sudan. The formal announcement means people have already started dying of hunger.

Three years of civil war has devastated hopes that the oil-rich country would prosper when it gained independence from Sudan at the end of one of Africa’s longest running conflicts. Unity State, which borders Sudan, has been at the centre of some of the fiercest fighting, while tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes in the face of a government offensive against opposition-held areas.

The worsening crisis in South Sudan comes as three other countries - Yemen, Somalia and Nigeria - are at risk of looming famines, agencies have warned.

About 4.9 million people – more than 40% of South Sudan’s population – are in need of urgent food, agriculture and nutrition assistance, according to an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) update released on Monday by the government, humanitarian organisations and the WFP, The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the UN children’s fund, Unicef.

The IPC update, which was based on information built up over recent months, added that the total number of food insecure people is expected to rise to 5.5 million in July if nothing is done to curb the severity and spread of the food crisis.

Serge Tissot, FAO representative in South Sudan, said: “Famine has become a tragic reality in parts of South Sudan and our worst fears have been realised. Many families have exhausted every means they have to survive.

“The people are predominantly farmers and war has disrupted agriculture. They’ve lost their livestock, even their farming tools. For months there has been a total reliance on whatever plants they can find and fish they can catch.”

The IPC report, which assessed 23 of South Sudan’s 86 counties, estimates that 14 have global acute malnutrition (GAM), a measurement of the nutritional status of a population, at or above the emergency threshold of 15%. In some areas it was as high as 42%.

WFP country director Joyce Luma said: “This famine is man-made. WFP and the entire humanitarian community have been trying with all our might to avoid this catastrophe, mounting a humanitarian response of a scale that quite frankly would have seemed impossible three years ago.



“But we have also warned that there is only so much that humanitarian assistance can achieve in the absence of meaningful peace and security, both for relief workers and the crisis-affected people they serve.”



Food production in South Sudan was devastated by an upsurge in violence last year while soaring inflation – up to 800% year-on-year – and market failure have have left its people struggling to cope with massive price rises on basic food items.

Relief operations have been underway across South Sudan since the start of the conflict. The IPC assessment found that aid had lessened the risk of famine in other regions of the country, including Northern Bahr el Ghazal state.

The WFP said it plans to provide food and nutrition assistance to 4.1 million people during this year’s “hunger season” - when food from the last harvest has run out but new crops haven’t come in yet - including emergency food, cash and nutrition assistance.

Unicef, which said more than 1 million children are estimated to be acutely malnourished across South Sudan, plans to treat 207,000 children for severe malnutrition this year. </s> A famine has been declared in parts of South Sudan, the first to be announced in any part of the world in six years.

The government and the United Nations report that some 100,000 people are facing starvation, with a million more on the brink of famine.

A combination of civil war and an economic collapse have been blamed.

There have been warnings of famine in Yemen, Somalia and north-eastern Nigeria, but South Sudan is the first to declare one.

The famine is currently affecting parts of to Unity state in South Sudan, but humanitarian groups have warned that the crisis could spread if urgent help is not received.

Aid agencies, including the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the children’s fund Unicef, said that 4.9 million people – more than 40% of South Sudan’s population – are in urgent need of food.

Food shortages can lead to large numbers of people lacking nutrition, but only rarely do they amount to famine, according to UN humanitarian criteria.

Long periods of drought and other problems reducing the supply of food do not necessarily result in a famine.

A famine is declared only when certain measures of mortality, malnutrition and hunger are met. They are:
• at least 20% of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope
• the death rate exceeds two persons per day per 10,000 persons

The declaration of a famine carries no binding obligations on the UN or member states, but serves to focus global attention on the problem.

The report on Monday said that an increase in humanitarian assistance was needed in order to prevent the famine from spreading to other vulnerable areas.

“If sustained and adequate assistance is delivered urgently, the hunger situation can be improved in the coming months and further suffering mitigated,” the report said.

Head of the WFP in South Sudan, Joyce Luma, said that the famine was “man-made” after three years of conflict across the country stifled crop production and hit farmers and rural livelihoods.

The impact of the conflict, combined with high food prices, economic disruption and low agricultural production has resulted in the area becoming “food insecure”, the report added.

It is not the first time South Sudan has experienced such a crisis. During the war for independence from Sudan, the territory suffered from a famine in 1998.

Last week, the WFP warned that more than 20 million people may face starvation in a series of famines over the next six months.

The WFP’s chief economist, Arif Husain, said a combination of wars and drought meant that for the first time in recent years, aid workers were now talking about four simultaneous famines in separate parts of the world.

He added that despite record levels of international humanitarian aid distribution, there was not enough to look after all the people in need. </s> Also on Monday, three UN agencies, namely the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warned in a joint press release that the lives of some 100,000 people in South Sudan were endangered due to starvation.

The civil war in South Sudan, waged between President Salva Kiir’s supporters and opposition forces, has been lasting since 2013 and has made approximately 3.5 million people displaced, according to information by the United Nations from February 10.

In late January, Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said the food insecurity in South Sudan was triggered by ongoing conflict undermining economic development, high food prices and restricted humanitarian access.

Never miss a story again — sign up to our Telegram channel and we'll keep you up to speed! </s> Story highlights UN declares famine in South Sudan's Unity state

More than 1 million children across the country are suffering from acute malnutrition, UNICEF warns

(CNN) Famine in South Sudan has left 100,000 people on the verge of starvation and almost 5 million people, more than 40% of the country's population, in need of urgent help, aid agencies say.

People are already dying of hunger, and another 1 million people are on the brink of famine, UN agencies said.

Years of civil war, a refugee crisis and a collapsing economy have taken their toll on South Sudan since it gained its independence in 2011.

Now the UN World Food Programme and nongovernmental organizations are sounding the alarm, warning that more than a million children are suffering from acute malnutrition.

"Our worst fears have been realized," said Serge Tissot, of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. "Many families have exhausted every means they have to survive."

Read More </s> The South Sudanese government and United Nations declared Monday a famine in parts of the country devastated by conflict. One hundred thousand people are “already starving” and nearly 5 million are in need of urgent help in war-torn South Sudan, according to U.N. humanitarian agencies.

“Our worst fears have been realized,” said Serge Tissot, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) spokesman in South Sudan. “Many families have exhausted every means they have to survive.” Nearly 275,000 children are at risk of starving to death unless the international community intervenes in a rapid and meaningful way, the U.N. warned.

The worst-hit region is Unity state in the north of the country. That’s also the scene of brutal fighting between government and rebel forces — and experts say that’s no coincidence.

“Conflicts are one of the key causes of food insecurity,” Lorenzo Bellu, a senior economist for the FAO, told Foreign Policy. Violent conflict disrupted agricultural production and led to surging food prices in the country. The region is also experiencing a prolonged drought that experts blame on climate change.

In other words, the crisis is largely man-made — and could have been averted. In December, the U.N. blocked an arms embargo on South Sudan that experts say would have mitigated the conflict fueling the food shortages. And humanitarian groups urged the international community for months to funnel aid and food to South Sudan to avert famine — to little avail.

The famine has arrived, but humanitarian workers still don’t have enough resources to cope. “We are quite concerned that we do not have the resources,” said George Fominyen, a U.N. spokesman in South Sudan’s capital, Juba. “We could run out of food by the end of June. The needs are so huge; every time you are entering a new front, a new battle.”

“In 2011 after the famine that hit Somalia, the world said never again,” said Emma Jane Drew, humanitarian program manager for Oxfam in South Sudan. “The declaration of famine in South Sudan reflects the collective failure to heed the countless warnings of an ever-worsening situation.”

It’s driven the most afflicted to desperation. “People have been pushed to the brink of surviving on what they can find to eat in swamps,” Drew said.

The U.N. has a technical definition for famine to distinguish it from other variants of food insecurity. At least 20 percent of households must face extreme food shortages, 30 percent or more of the population must face acute malnutrition, and the death rate must exceed 2 people per 10,000 per day for a country or international bodies to declare famine. The U.N. and its members aren’t bound to take any specific actions once a famine is declared. Rather, the declaration can highlight global attention to the problem.

Humanitarian aid in the region is already thinly-stretched, but it could get even worse. Somalia, Nigeria, and Yemen also face “unprecedented” need for emergency food assistance to prevent famine, according to the U.S. government-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network.

But South Sudan’s three-year old civil war makes the situation especially dire there, making aid deliveries even trickier. “I wasn’t prepared for the shocking devastation I witnessed,” said Andrew Gilmour, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for human rights, last week after he traveled to areas of South Sudan ravaged by fighting between the government and rebel forces.

Civilians are caught in the middle of that fighting, with brutal results. Government soldiers and militias operate with ruthless impunity in the region, carry out war crimes including murders, torture, forced cannibalism, and mass rape.

“It is utterly abhorrent that women in this area have to choose between getting raped or getting a livelihood,” Gilmour said. “But this seems the brutal reality of what South Sudan has become.” </s> People are already dying of hunger, and another 1 million people are on the brink of famine, UN agencies said.

Years of civil war, a refugee crisis and a collapsing economy have taken their toll on South Sudan since it gained its independence in 2011.

Now the UN World Food Programme and nongovernmental organizations are sounding the alarm, warning that more than a million children are suffering from acute malnutrition.

"Our worst fears have been realized," said Serge Tissot, of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. "Many families have exhausted every means they have to survive."

Famine has gripped parts of #SouthSudan. Nearly 5M men, women and kids need food, agriculture & nutrition assistance https://t.co/KqFxZnqLtg pic.twitter.com/gOZeYXKZiB — World Food Programme (@WFP) February 20, 2017 The war has disrupted farming and left people with little choice but to scavenge for food to survive. "People have been pushed to the brink, [they are] surviving on what they can find to eat in swamps," said Emma Jane Drew, Oxfam's humanitarian program manager in South Sudan. "Vulnerable people, out of reach of life-saving assistance due to the conflict, are paying the ultimate price," she added in a statement. Drew said the famine was "a man-made tragedy" and called for an end to the fighting so aid could get through to those most in need. #SouthSudan: People pushed to the brink of survival as #famine hits, women & children worst affected: https://t.co/NHHQ3CVunq pic.twitter.com/E3W3IavlSA — Oxfam International (@Oxfam) February 20, 2017 George Fominyen, the UN food program spokesman in South Sudan's capital, Juba, said the problem had been building for years. "It has not been sudden," he said. "Food insecurity, hunger, malnutrition has been getting steadily worse since the conflict started three years ago." Fomiyen said humanitarian groups had found it extremely difficult to reach the hardest-hit areas. "We have to talk to 10 to 15 people and ask if it's possible to send a team there," he said. "You cannot just access these places without prior agreement." Fomiyen said the program's food supplies will run out unless it can secure "a substantial injection of funds" -- $205 million -- within the next six months. "We are quite concerned that we do not have the resources," he said. "We could run out of food by the end of June. The needs are so huge; every time you are entering a new front, a new battle." Last week the United Nations warned that 1.5 million people had fled South Sudan , crossing the border into Uganda to escape the fighting in their homeland, and creating Africa's biggest refugee crisis. Soldiers killed dad in front of his daughter Soldiers killed dad in front of his daughter Nasir Abel Fernandes, senior emergency coordinator for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said Ugandan refugee camps are filling up with desperate South Sudanese citizens "More attention needs to be paid to South Sudan," Fernandes said. "The leaders really should be asked to take responsibility and stop this killing of civilians." South Sudan is the world's newest country. It gained its independence from Sudan in 2011, after years of civil war. But after two years of relative peace, trouble broke out between President Salva Kiir's mainly Dinka army and the Nuer people of his former deputy Riek Machar. Since July 2016 that fighting has intensified to draw in other ethnic groups and render the countryside, including the formerly agriculturally rich Equatoria region, a permanent war zone that has been producing refugees instead of food. </s> Famine has been declared in two counties of South Sudan, according to an announcement by the South Sudan government and three UN agencies, which says the calamity is the result of prolonged civil war and an entrenched economic crisis that has devastated the war-torn East African nation.

The official classification of famine highlights the human suffering caused by South Sudan's three-year civil war and even as it is declared President Salva Kiir's government is blocking food aid to some areas, according to UN officials.

More than 100,000 people in two counties of Unity state are experiencing famine and there are fears it will spread as an additional one million South Sudanese are on the brink of starvation, said the announcement.

"The concern is not just about the 100,000 civilians that are facing famine at the moment," said Al Jazeera's Hiba Morgan, reporting from Juba. "There are about one million more people that are on the brink of famine.

"Also, one out of every three households in South Sudan is currently facing food insecurity."

READ MORE: South Sudan spends budget on fighting as people starve

"Our worst fears have been realised," said Serge Tissot, head of the Food and Agriculture Organization in South Sudan.

He said the war has disrupted the otherwise fertile country, causing civilians to rely on "whatever plants they can find and fish they can catch".

'Man-made famine'

Roughly 5.5 million people, or about 50 percent of South Sudan's population, are expected to be severely food insecure and at risk of death in the coming months, said the report.

It added that nearly three-quarters of all households in the country suffer from inadequate food.

If food aid does not reach children urgently "many of them will die," said Jeremy Hopkins, head of the UN children's agency in South Sudan.

Over 250,000 children are severely malnourished Hopkins said, meaning they are at risk of death.

It is not the first time South Sudan has experienced starvation. When it fought for independence from Sudan in 1998, the territory suffered from a famine spurred by civil war.

Anywhere from 70,000 to several hundred thousand people died during that famine. But Monday's declaration of starvation is solely South Sudan's creation, and a UN official blamed the country's politicians for the humanitarian crisis.

"This famine is man-made," said Joyce Luma, head of the World Food Programme in South Sudan. "There is only so much that humanitarian assistance can achieve in the absence of meaningful peace and security."

"This famine is not caused by draught, it is not caused by floods," Al Jazeera's Morgan said. "It is basically caused by the conflict which resulted in a collapsing economy."

"The conflict made it impossible for many people to farm, especially in the equatorial regions, which was previously stable until the conflict broke out in July."

Nowhere else has civil war caused such a drastic decline in South Sudan's food security than in Central Equatoria state, according to the report.

WATCH: South Sudan aid - Many in desperate need of food (2:21)

Traditionally South Sudan's breadbasket, Central Equatoria has been hit by fighting and ethnically targeted killings that began in July 2016 and have displaced over half a million residents and disrupted agricultural production.

South Sudan's widespread hunger has been compounded by an economic crisis, as well. South Sudan is experiencing severe inflation, which has made food unaffordable for many families.

"There is 800 percent inflation in this country at the moment, food market prices have become unaffordable for a lot of people," Al Jazeera's Morgan said.

When The Associated Press news agency visited the western town of Aweil in September, the price of food had risen ten-fold in the previous 12 months.

Although it is not as significant as the effects of war and inflation, some of South Sudan's hunger crisis is the direct result of the government's action.

South Sudanese government officials have blocked or placed constraints on the delivery of food aid to areas of the country, according to a UN official who insisted on anonymity because of lack of authorisation to speak to the media.

But Al Jazeera's Morgan said the reason behind the lack of humanitarian access is a lot complicated.

"There is fighting between the government and various armed groups," she said.

"So it is quite hard to bring humanitarian aid to the areas affected by this famine. Humanitarian organisations do not know who is operating some parts of the country at any given time, they don't know how to communicate with people in charge, and this causes some kind of a barrier for humanitarian aid."

South Sudan's rural demographics is also an obstacle in front of food aid, Morgan said.

"Most civilians are basically in the bush, most of South Sudan's population, 70 percent, is in the bush. It is very hard for the aid to reach these people."

On Monday, the UN agencies said that unimpeded humanitarian access "is urgently needed".

Tens of thousands of people have died since civil war broke out in December 2013, and the UN warns that South Sudan is at risk of genocide.

Since fighting in the capital of Juba killed hundreds of people in July, the war has uprooted more than three million people.

UN officials have contested that hunger in South Sudan is even more shocking because of the country's fertile land conditions. During her farewell briefing in November as head of the UN mission, Ellen Loj said that South Sudan has the resources and climate to feed itself.

"When I am flying up country, I am always surprised to see all that fertile land and there is not anything," Loj said.

"You could feed yourself plenty and I hope peace will come to South Sudan."
The World Food Programme (WFP) and other United Nations agencies declare that there is a famine in parts of Unity State, South Sudan, with 100,000 facing starvation and another million on the brink of famine.