War in South Sudan continued during the lean season in summer, driving nearly 60 percent of the population into extreme hunger, according to a multi-agency food security report published on Friday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) War in South Sudan continued during the lean season in summer, driving nearly 60 percent of the population into extreme hunger, according to a multi-agency food security report published on Friday.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report by global agencies, including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme, looked at the food crisis from July to September.
"It is expected that 6.1 million people (59% of the total population) faced Crisis (IPC Phase 3) or worse acute food insecurity at the peak of the lean season (July - August)," the study concluded.
Food security slightly improved with the start of harvest in September and is expected to rise in the next two months, it said, but the number of people in IPC Phase 3 or worse will likely stay at 4.4 million.
Of those facing hunger in the impoverished country, 21 percent are estimated to be children under five, and 7 percent are elderly people, the report said.
South Sudan broke away from Sudan after a referendum in 2011. In 2013, a civil war erupted in the country, as South Sudan's President Salva Kiir of the Dinka tribe accused rebel leader Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer, of planning a coup.
