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Saturday, 15 October 2016

South Sudan spends budget on fighting as people starve

The UN calls South Sudan one of the world's worst humanitarian crises
Mass exodus of civilians from northern Afghan province puts strain on neighbouring hospitals with many wounded.

The mother faced an anguished decision: choosing which of her children to save. With hunger gripping the remote  Northern Bahr el Ghazal region of South Sudan, Elizabeth Athiel could either get urgent medical attention for her eight-month-old daughter, Anger, or make sure her other five children could eat.


The little girl was shockingly thin, but the medical clinic was a half-day's walk away, and she would have to wait there for days until recovery. "I can't leave the others alone here," Athiel said, holding Anger in her arms.

 It is not known what later happened to the child. Her family is another victim of South Sudan's civil war - in a part of the country that hasn't even seen fighting.

In the government stronghold of Northern Bahr el Ghazal, there are indications of famine. One-third of children in the region are estimated to be acutely malnourished.

If resources remain limited, more children will die, said Mahimbo Mdoe, the UNICEF representative in South Sudan. The food crisis is evidence of how the conflict has devastated South Sudan's ability to function. Since December 2013, tens of thousands of people have been killed. More than one million refugees have fled.

The UN calls South Sudan one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Even as President Salva Kiir and his government have repeatedly promised full humanitarian access to this and other areas, South Sudanese officials have restricted aid amid hostility at the international community over its attempts to calm the fighting and protect civilians.

During a visit by The Associated Press news agency to Aweil in mid-September, aid airdrops by the UN's World Food Program (WFP) had been suspended because the government imposed what it called additional security requirements. They later resumed but were suspended again this week.