JUBA: Nearly half of the population in war-torn South Sudan is experiencing extreme hunger, with many more set to run out of food as famine looms, government and UN agencies said Monday. In 2017 some 100,000 people were affected by a famine – meaning people started dying due to lack of food. “Improved access and a massive humanitarian response succeeded in containing and averting famine later last year. Four years of civil war have devastated agriculture, while prices have soared and rains have also been unreliable. South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, was engulfed by civil war in 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his rival and former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup against him.

Source: New Strait Times February 26, 2018 13:41 UTC