ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – World hunger rose in 2017 for a third consecutive year, fueled by conflict and climate change, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, jeopardizing a global goal to end the scourge by 2030.
Tag: conflict
Starvation: a weapon of war that could kill 590,000 children by the end of 2018
Starvation being used as a weapon of war has become the new normal, according to Save the Children. Its analysis shows more than half a million infants in conflict zones could die of malnutrition by the end of the year if they do not receive treatment, the equivalent of one every minute.
UN gravely concerned at South Sudan’s ‘food security crisis’
The UN Security Council is expressing grave concern at the “food security crisis” in war-torn South Sudan. The council said in a statement after closed-door briefings on Friday that ongoing fighting in the country’s five-year civil war “is one of the main direct causes” of food insecurity.
In South Sudan, mothers are so hungry many can no longer breast-feed
Weeks after the outbreak of deadly fighting in South Sudan, aid groups say their movement is being restricted by continued violence and government checkpoints, harming their ability to get food and medicine to severely malnourished children. “We already have an extremely serious food-insecurity crisis,” said U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien in an interview. “And there are many circumstances where, appallingly, this only gets worse.”…O’Brien said that during a trip to South Sudan this week, he met with mothers unable to breast-feed their babies because they themselves were not getting enough food.
Five years after independence, South Sudan faces myriad challenges
South Sudan has a population of just over 11 million people, 2.3 million of whom have fled their homes due to ongoing violence. About 1.61 million South Sudanese are displaced within South Sudan, and over 720,000 have sought refuge in neigbouring countries according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
In South Sudan, bodies are being counted as peace accord appears to unravel
Even though the fighting that tore through the capital had mostly stopped, many of the 45,000 people who fled the clashes searched for food and water, often without success. The United Nations had reached a critical shortage of basic aid supplies, officials said.
