The United Nations issued its starkest warning yet about South Sudan on Friday, with humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher telling the Security Council that the world’s youngest nation is at risk of sliding into full-scale famine as relentless fighting between rival military factions tears through civilian communities and disrupts the delivery of life-saving aid.
Speaking after a week inside the country, Fletcher described scenes of desperation that he fears will only worsen before the lean season ends in July. “Humanitarian compounds have been looted and nutrition centres destroyed” in areas surrounding Akobo in Jonglei State, where more than 140,000 people are in dire need of assistance, he said. More than 7.5 million South Sudanese — well over half the population — will require food assistance this year.
A Peace Deal That Never Delivered Peace
South Sudan gained independence in 2011 and within two years descended into a civil war between President Salva Kiir and his then-deputy Riek Machar. A 2018 power-sharing agreement brought relative calm, installing Kiir as president and Machar as deputy. But the deal was never fully implemented. The two sides never truly unified their forces, elections were never held, and the underlying tensions that drove the war remained unresolved.
In December, a coalition of opposition forces seized government outposts in Jonglei State, prompting a retaliatory military offensive in late January that forced more than 280,000 civilians to flee their homes. The fighting has been particularly brutal in Jonglei, where communities have been caught between advancing government troops and opposition forces, often with little time to escape.
Anita Kiki Gbeho, the head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), told the Security Council that “civilians continue to bear the brunt” of the intensifying violence. She appealed for the renewal of the UNMISS mandate — which expires on April 30 — and for a level of commitment from the international community that matches the scale of suffering on the ground.
Famine at the Door
The food security situation in parts of South Sudan has been deteriorating for months. Fletcher said he feared his next briefing to the Security Council would have to report the formal onset of famine conditions. The areas most at risk include parts of Jonglei and neighboring Upper Nile and Unity states, where conflict has combined with seasonal flooding to cut off communities from markets, fields, and humanitarian corridors.
South Sudan’s floods, which have become more severe and less predictable in recent years due in part to climate change, arrive just as the harvest season ends, leaving households with minimal stocks to carry them through the months ahead. Entire communities have been displaced multiple times — first by water, then by bullets.
The UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) framework is expected to place several counties in Jonglei at Phase 4 — Emergency — throughout the lean season. Phase 5, Famine, is the highest classification and is declared only when death from starvation has been documented alongside critical levels of acute malnutrition and an inability of households to access food.
Aid Access and International Responsibility
Fletcher called on all parties to the conflict to guarantee unhindered humanitarian access to affected populations. Under international humanitarian law, armed forces are required to permit safe passage for aid workers and to protect civilians, medical facilities, and food distribution points. In South Sudan, those basic protections have been routinely violated.
As the Security Council debates the mission’s future, aid organizations warn that any withdrawal or reduction in capacity could leave some of the world’s most vulnerable people without the minimal protection and assistance that stands between them and catastrophe. With fighting showing no sign of abating and the lean season just beginning, South Sudan’s descent toward famine may prove difficult to reverse.