Over 1.2 million people in war-torn South Sudan are one step away from famine — twice as many as at the same time last year — and in early 2018 half the country’s population will be reliant on emergency food aid, the U.N. humanitarian chief said Thursday. Mark Lowcock told the U.N. Security Council that even though 2 million people have fled the country over the past four years, 7 million people inside the country — “almost two-thirds of the remaining population” — still need humanitarian aid. “The next lean season beginning in March is likely to see famine conditions in several locations across the country,” Lowcock said. An August 2015 peace agreement has not stopped the fighting, and clashes in July 2016 between supporters of Kiir and Machar set off further violence. Lacroix said the forum and a national dialogue under way at the local level in South Sudan “can address the spiraling crisis, if well-co-ordinated.”“But fighting cannot continue in tandem with efforts to craft a durable peace,” he warned.

Source: National Post December 08, 2017 02:00 UTC