UN warns South Sudan famine
- The UN's humanitarian chief warned South Sudan risks sliding into full-scale famine and state collapse. - The UN says about two-thirds of South Sudan's population now need aid, with funding shortfalls hampering response. - Tom Fletcher described conditions as "despair and abandonment", citing rising conflict, hunger and shrinking aid funding. (eyeradio.org)
The United Nations says South Sudan is edging toward famine as conflict, hunger and aid cuts push the country deeper into crisis. (unocha.org) Tom Fletcher, the United Nations humanitarian chief, told the Security Council after a March visit that South Sudan faces “despair and abandonment” and risks “sliding into full-scale war, famine, and state collapse.” He described attacks around Nasir and Ulang in Upper Nile state and fresh displacement around Akobo in Jonglei. (unocha.org) The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says more than 10 million people in South Sudan — about two-thirds of the population — will need aid in 2026. That is up from 9.3 million in 2025. (unocha.org) Food insecurity is already severe. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said 7.56 million people were projected to face crisis-level hunger or worse during the April-to-July 2026 lean season, when food stocks typically run lowest before harvest. (unicef.org) The warning comes as fighting has spread in parts of Upper Nile and Jonglei, while the war in neighboring Sudan has pushed hundreds of thousands of refugees and returnees across the border into South Sudan. Fletcher told the Security Council that 439,000 Sudanese refugees and 917,000 returnees had arrived. (unocha.org) Aid groups say the crisis is not only about food. OCHA’s 2026 response plan lists climate shocks, disease outbreaks, economic collapse and repeated violence as overlapping pressures that have broken services and displaced millions. (unocha.org) In Akobo, Fletcher said late-February violence hit a hospital that had been serving more than 100,000 people, and later looting stripped it of medicines, equipment and beds. The World Health Organization reported that 26 health facilities across Jonglei had been destroyed or forced to close, cutting off 1.35 million people from healthcare. (unocha.org) The World Food Programme said in November 2025 that conflict and funding cuts were shrinking food assistance even as hunger worsened, especially in Upper Nile. OCHA’s 2026 plan says humanitarian agencies are trying to reach 5.4 million of the most vulnerable people, but the operation is constrained by underfunding and access problems. (wfp.org, unocha.org) South Sudan gained independence in 2011, but years of civil war, local conflict and economic strain have left much of the country dependent on outside aid. The latest United Nations warning is that the gap between needs and response is widening again. (unocha.org, unocha.org)
