Three United Nations agencies have issued a joint warning that South Sudan is sliding towards famine, with conflict cutting off communities and the aid operation struggling for funds. The Food and Agriculture Organisation, the World Food Programme and UNICEF said 56 per cent of the country's 12 million people are experiencing high levels of hunger, including 5.3 million in crisis, 2.5 million in emergency and 73,300 in catastrophe – the most severe category, which has risen by 160 per cent in six months.
The agencies identified a credible risk of famine in four counties in the northern Upper Nile region and the central Jonglei region, with 11 counties expected to reach extremely critical malnutrition by July. In Maban County, Upper Nile, a doctor described conditions worsening: no electricity due to fuel shortages, no malaria tests, intravenous fluids or blood bags, and surgeons forced to perform caesareans with almost no medicines. Staff are leaving, and his family has not eaten for seven days, while the price of sorghum has become unaffordable.
Famine has been formally declared only five times since the international classification system was introduced, and South Sudan has already experienced it twice, in 2017 and 2020. Nearly 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished – 100,000 more than six months ago – and 700,000 are projected to face severe acute malnutrition by July. A further 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women are acutely malnourished.
The warning comes amid severe cuts to international aid. The United States reduced its foreign assistance by 57 per cent in 2025, UK aid has fallen to its lowest level since 2008, and Norway, Germany and France have also reduced budgets. At the same time, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz following US and Israeli strikes on Iran has pushed oil prices from $60 to a peak of $126 a barrel, currently around $107. The strait carries a quarter of the world's fertiliser supply, along with medicines and humanitarian goods routed through Dubai and India. Save the Children estimates that every $5 rise in oil prices adds $340,000 a month to its shipping, fuel and medical supply costs – equivalent to a month of aid for nearly 40,000 children.
The World Food Programme's director of emergencies, Ross Smith, said the agency is in "a critical race against time" to reach remote areas before the rainy season cuts access. The International Rescue Committee has called for a humanitarian corridor through the Strait after $130,000 of pharmaceutical supplies destined for Sudan were left stranded. Rein Paulsen of the FAO warned the crisis is erasing hard-won gains, saying: "We cannot afford to lose the hard-won gains made in recent years."
