Nairobi (AFP)
The non-governmental relief organization Save the Children announced yesterday that about 1.4 million children under the age of five in South Sudan suffer from malnutrition, warning that the young country is facing the “worst hunger crisis” caused in particular by successive floods and armed conflicts.
And the state of South Sudan, which saw the light in 2011 when it seceded from Sudan, has witnessed this year, for the fourth year in a row, floods that have so far affected nine of the country’s ten states.
According to the United Nations, 8.9 million people in this country, or 70 percent of its population, are in need of humanitarian assistance.
“Save the Children” said in a statement that this number “includes 1.4 million malnourished children under the age of five.”
“The situation has worsened in recent months, with more than 615,000 people affected by unprecedented floods, which destroyed homes and crops and caused an increase in cases of malaria and snakebites, especially among women and children, for the fourth consecutive year,” the NGO said.
The organization pointed out that the South Sudanese currency lost 40 percent of its value this year, which led to an increase in the prices of imported products, which rose mainly due to the crisis in Ukraine.
“South Sudan is one of the five most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change,” the statement quoted Jeb Rabeltosaporn, director of the organization in Juba, as saying.
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