UN: South Sudan’s food crisis is the worst in the world

The UN Security Council has warned over South Sudan’s food crisis as the worst in the world, calling for urgent action.

It said there was a “catastrophic food insecurity” in South Sudan, urging donor nations who pledged $618 million in aid to make good on their promise.

The UN children’s fund, UNICEF, said some four million – a third of the population – could be affected.

It said that 50,000 children may die of hunger in South Sudan unless international help increased.

More than a million people have fled their homes since fighting erupted between different factions of South Sudan’s ruling party last December.

Thousands have now died in the conflict that started as a political dispute between President Salva Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar but has since escalated into ethnic violence.

Months of fighting have prevented farmers from planting or harvesting crops, causing food shortages nationwide.

South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, topped the list of fragile states in this year’s index released by The Fund for Peace, a leading US-based research institute.