South Sudan famine alarm

South Sudan is edging toward famine, with the United Nations warning on April 17 that rising fighting and shrinking aid are pushing the country toward “full-scale famine and collapse.” (news.un.org) Tom Fletcher, the United Nations emergency relief chief, told the Security Council that conflict, displacement, hunger, disease and attacks on aid workers are all rising at once. The warning came after a visit to South Sudan, where he said civilians described a sense of “despair and abandonment.” (news.un.org) The food numbers are already severe. The World Food Programme says 7.56 million people — more than half the population — are expected to face crisis-level hunger or worse during the April-to-July 2026 lean season, and more than 2.1 million children under 5 are acutely malnourished. (wfp.org) The worst conditions are concentrated in Upper Nile and Jonglei. The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis says about 28,000 people in Luakpiny-Nasir and Fangak counties are already in Catastrophe, the highest hunger category, and southern Luakpiny-Nasir is at risk of famine under a worst-case scenario. (ipcinfo.org) This emergency is not just about failed harvests. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says South Sudan’s crisis is being driven by renewed clashes since March 2025, climate shocks, disease outbreaks and a collapsing economy that has eroded basic services. (unocha.org) Sudan’s war has made the strain heavier. OCHA says nearly 1.3 million refugees and returnees entered South Sudan from Sudan between April 2023 and the end of November 2025, with another 380,000 arrivals projected by the end of 2026. (unocha.org) The country is also coming into this hunger season after another year of weather extremes. OCHA says flooding affected more than 1.3 million people in 2025 and displaced more than 375,000, while other northern and south-eastern areas were hit by prolonged dry spells that damaged crops and livestock. (unocha.org) Aid agencies say they do not have the money to respond at full scale. South Sudan’s 2026 humanitarian plan seeks $1.46 billion, but the appeal was about 22.2 percent funded as of the latest update, and the World Food Programme says it needs another $321 million for operations through April 2026. (humanitarianaction.info) (wfp.org) The squeeze is hitting protection as well as food deliveries. The head of the United Nations mission in South Sudan told the Security Council that budget cuts have reduced the mission’s operational capacity by 24 to 30 percent, limiting patrols, mine-clearing and longer-term civilian protection in places such as Jonglei. (news.un.org) The immediate asks from United Nations agencies are basic and narrow: stop the fighting, protect civilians, reopen access for aid convoys and fund the response before the lean season deepens. Without that, the warning delivered in New York on April 17 is likely to be measured next in empty markets, closed clinics and more people on the move. (news.un.org) (wfp.org)