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Numerous crises at the same time: the silhouettes of children in South Sudan walking along a dried-up river
Photo: Adrienne Surprenant/AP
The World Food Program (WFP) is forced to suspend food rations for 1.7 million starving people in South Sudan due to a lack of donations.
The money is only enough for 4.4 million people, Adeyinka Badejo-Sanogo, acting WFP director in South Sudan, told reporters in Geneva via video link from the capital Juba.
The rations of grain, legumes, cooking oil and salt should have been halved last year.
Two thirds of the eleven million inhabitants actually needed support, she said.
"We work to avert famine," said Badejo-Sanogo.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011 after more than 20 years of civil war.
But in the past eleven years the country has not come to rest.
South Sudan is struggling with numerous crises at the same time: These included the consequences of severe floods, droughts in other parts of the country, internal conflicts and rising food prices worldwide as a result of the Russian war against Ukraine.
The Red Cross also warns of famine
According to its own statements, the WFP needs 426 million dollars (around 407 million euros) for South Sudan this year.
The organization is mainly financed from the treasury of richer countries.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had already warned of a famine in Africa in April.
More than a quarter of the people on the continent - a total of around 346 million - were already suffering from "alarming" hunger.
"The acute situation of food insecurity in many countries where we work and where people are already suffering from armed conflicts is tipping into a real famine," said the ICRC's head of international operations, Dominik Stillhart, to journalists in Nairobi.
The "terrible" plight of the civilian population in Ukraine should not divert global attention from other crises in Africa.
mrc/dpa