UN Agencies Warn Tens of Thousands on Brink of Famine in South Sudan (For the Media)

JUBA – Three UN agencies today warned that extreme hunger is pushing people to the brink of a catastrophe in parts of South Sudan, as a new analysis found that 3.9 million people nationwide now face severe food insecurity. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) called on the parties to the conflict to grant urgent and unrestricted access to Unity State, where a newly released Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis shows that at least 30,000 people are living in extreme conditions and are facing starvation and death. Since the war in South Sudan started nearly two years ago, it is the first time that an IPC analysis has found any parts of the population in phase five (“catastrophe”) on the five-point IPC scale.