South Sudan famine eases, but ‘more going hungry’

Juba, Wednesday

A famine that was declared in parts of South Sudan four months ago is over, UN aid agencies has said, but extreme hunger has increased to its highest levels ever across the war-torn country.

“The accepted technical definition of famine no longer applies in former Unity State’s Leer and Mayandit counties where famine was declared in February,” according to a joint statement from the UN children’s agency Unicef, the World Food Programme and the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).

But while the famine has eased, the number of people struggling to find food each day has grown to six million from 4.9 million in February, in what the agencies said was the “highest level of food insecurity ever experienced in South Sudan.”

“The crisis is not over. We are merely keeping people alive but far too many face extreme hunger,” said the FAO’s director of emergencies Dominique Burgeon.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis is supporting a series of aid projects in South Sudan, the Vatican said Wednesday, sending money in his place after a trip to the war-torn country was ruled out.

The Vatican will donate 462,000 euros, which will be divided among two hospitals run by nuns, a teacher training programme and a project to purchase seeds and tools for 2,500 farming families. -AFP

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