Famine Stalks Millions in South Sudan after Droughts, Floods

South Sudanese refugees. Reuters file photo
South Sudanese refugees. Reuters file photo
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Famine Stalks Millions in South Sudan after Droughts, Floods

South Sudanese refugees. Reuters file photo
South Sudanese refugees. Reuters file photo

Famine threatens the lives of up to 5.5 million people in South Sudan, where droughts and flooding have destroyed crops and livestock, compounding "intense political instability", the United Nations warned on Thursday.

The UN's World Food Program (WFP) said it needed $270 million urgently to provide food to hungry South Sudanese in the first half of 2020 and avert mass starvation in the world's youngest country.

"Every factor is in place for there to be famine in 2020 unless we take immediate action to expand our deliveries in areas affected by floods and other areas affected by food loss," Matthew Hollingworth, WFP country director, told Reuters.

"We need to pre-position food around the country in the next two to three months," he said, noting that road access to many remote communities would be impossible after the rainy season sets in.

The government declared a state of emergency in late October in Bahr El Ghazal, Greater Upper Nile and Greater Equatoria after months of flooding, WFP said in a statement.

Nearly 1 million people are directly affected by the floods and the waters have not receded in many places, it said.

"The scale of the loss from the harvest is enormous," Hollingworth said, speaking by telephone from Juba.

Fields with 73,000 tons of sorghum, millet and corn have been lost as well as tens of thousands of cattle, chickens and goats on which families depended for survival, he said.

Acute malnutrition rates in children under the age of five have risen from 13 percent in 2018 to 16 percent this year, Hollingworth said, adding: "They have gone above the global emergency threshold of 15 percent."

Water-borne diseases are spreading, although no cholera has been detected, he said.

"It can only get worse because of the situation and environment people are living in," he said.



Kremlin Says It Has Yet to Hear from US About Setting up a Possible Putin-Trump Meeting 

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin visits the Moscow State University (MSU) in Moscow on January 24, 2025. (Sputnik/AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin visits the Moscow State University (MSU) in Moscow on January 24, 2025. (Sputnik/AFP)
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Kremlin Says It Has Yet to Hear from US About Setting up a Possible Putin-Trump Meeting 

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin visits the Moscow State University (MSU) in Moscow on January 24, 2025. (Sputnik/AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin visits the Moscow State University (MSU) in Moscow on January 24, 2025. (Sputnik/AFP)

The Kremlin said on Monday it had yet to receive any signals from the United States about arranging a possible meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump, but remained ready to organize such an encounter.

"So far, we have not received any signals from the Americans", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

"(Russia's) readiness (for a meeting) remains, and the same readiness, as far as we have heard, remains on the American side. Apparently, a certain amount of time is required (to set something up)," he said.

Putin said on Friday that he and Trump should meet to talk about the Ukraine war and energy prices, issues that the US president has highlighted in the first days of his new administration.

Trump, who took office last week, has also said that he wants to meet Putin and that he wants to end the war, which he has cast as "ridiculous."