Report: Four Million in South Sudan Are Facing ‘Severe Food Insecurity’

The situation in South Sudan is becoming dire. A new report from UNICEF, the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization says that 4 million people in the young country are facing a severe shortage of food. As many as 30,000 are actually facing starvation. As the head of the Food and Agriculture Organization in South Sudan explained to Time, an on-going conflict in the region has devastated the food supply: “Livelihoods have been severely affected by high inflation rates, market disruption, conflict-related displacement, and loss of livestock and agricultural production.” Currently, a third of the entire nation does not get proper nutrition and because of the civil war, humanitarian aid organizations can not reach areas effected by famine. The head of the Wold Food Programme told the BBC, “People are on the edge of a catastrophe that can be prevented.”