The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) revealed Thursday that an estimated 6.31 million people are facing starvation in South Sudan.
“An estimated 6.31 million people continued to experience high levels of acute food insecurity in January, including 33,000 people in catastrophe in Akobo and Fangak, Jonglei State and in Pibor County, and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area,” OCHA said in it’s latest report released in Juba.
Catastrophe is the highest level of food emergency under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which classified hunger on scale of one to five.
Under the IPC, a famine is declared when 20 percent of the population is deemed to be in a catastrophe situation but an official famine has not yet been declared in the country.
The IPC noted that people will continue to suffer deteriorating humanitarian conditions— driven by conflict, a surge in sub-national violence, worsening food insecurity, continued climate crisis and ongoing public health challenges.
It said about 9.1 million, reflecting more than two-thirds of the total population are estimated to need humanitarian assistance in 2023.
In November 2022, the UN agencies said that as many as 7.8 million people in South Sudan, two-thirds of the population, may face severe food shortages from April-to-July in 2023 due to floods, drought and conflict.
