South Sudan May Be on the Verge of Another Famine
- Risk of relapse in north as lean season looms, official says
- Warring sides due to enact peace deal in first half of 2019
A woman drags a sack of maize and sorghum dropped from air by a World Food Programme plane in Jeich village, northern South Sudan, on July 3, 2018.
Photographer: Patrick Meinhardt/AFP via Getty Images
War-torn South Sudan is at risk of relapsing into famine in early 2019, United Nations agencies and a local official said, even as rival sides vow to end almost five years of brutal conflict.
About 36,000 people in Jonglei state and the former states of Western Bahr el-Ghazal and Unity may face famine between January and March, partly due to an earlier-than-normal lean season, the national statistic bureau’s chairman, Isaiah Chol Aruai, told reporters Friday in the capital, Juba. An estimated 5.2 million people may be in a “crisis hunger situation” over the same period, he said.