The United Nations said that 250,000 South Sudanese children are faced with extreme starvation due to military battles witnessed in the country since 2013.
South Sudan got its independence in 2011. However, it engaged in violent clashes in December 2013 as fighting started between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors led by his former deputy Riek Machar.
The conflict soon became an all-out war, with violence taking on an ethnic flavor, pitting the president's Dinka tribe against Machar Nuer's ethnic faction.
South Sudan got its independence in 2011. However, it engaged in violent clashes in December 2013 as fighting started between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors led by his former deputy Riek Machar.
The conflict soon became an all-out war, with violence taking on an ethnic flavor, pitting the president's Dinka tribe against Machar Nuer's ethnic faction.
The warfare left thousands of South Sudanese dead and forced around 1.9 million people to flee their homes.
According to the United nations humanitarian coordinator Toby Lanzer, in half of the country, one in three children are acutely malnourished and 250,000 children face starvation.
He added that according to statistics two-thirds of the country's 12 million people are in urgent need of help, emphasizing that 4.5 million face severe food shortage.
Lanzer further expects that the continuing war in South Sudan will lead to "economic collapse," noting that "six months ago, we assumed the violence and suffering had come to a head and peace was on the horizon. but we were wrong."
Lanzer was known for harshly criticizing the South Sudanese government, which led Juba to expel him in June.
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