Millions in South Sudan in Urgent Need of Food, U.N. Warns<br />Malnutrition rates have soared above emergency levels, and countless people have died of hunger, United Nations officials said.<br />Serge Tissot said that Our worst fears have been realized,<br />20, 2017<br />NAIROBI, Kenya — War and a collapsing economy have set off a famine in South Sudan, the<br />United Nations announced on Monday, and millions of people are in urgent need of food.<br />The United Nations has more than 10,000 peacekeepers in South Sudan, which is relatively few for a rugged country nearly the size of Texas,<br />that is crawling with armed groups that keep splintering.<br />Battles are still raging in many parts of South Sudan, and United Nations officials fear the famine could soon spread.<br />The United Nations considers famine a technical term, and for one to be declared, malnutrition and death rates have to exceed certain thresholds.<br />So far, the famine has affected a relatively small area in the northern part of the country,<br />where the conflict between the government and rebel groups has been most intense.
