LOC18:34
15:34 GMT
ROME, June 21 (KUNA) -- Famine has eased in South Sudan after a significant scale up in the humanitarian response, according to new analysis released on Wednesday.
The situation remains dire across South Sudan as the number of people struggling to find enough food each day has grown to 6 million - up from 4.9 million in February - and is the highest level of food insecurity ever experienced in the country, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a joint statement.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) update by the government, the FAO, UNICEF, the WFP, and other humanitarian partners, the accepted technical definition of famine no longer applies in former Unity State's Leer and Mayendit counties where famine was declared in February.
However, 45,000 people in former Unity and Jonglei states are still experiencing catastrophic conditions and face the prospect of starvation if humanitarian assistance is not sustained, the statement said.
This includes 25,000 people in former Unity State and 20,000 people in Jonglei where the situation has rapidly deteriorated because of displacements triggered by conflict and last year's poor harvest.
Worsening conditions are mirrored across the country. The number of people facing emergency levels of hunger - one step below famine on the IPC scale - is 1.7 million up from 1 million in February.
The three UN agencies warned that the gains made in the worst hunger hotspots must not be lost. People's ability to feed themselves has been severely eroded and continued life-saving emergency food and livelihoods support must continue to prevent a shift back to famine, according to FAO's website.
The WFP has reached 3.4 million people in South Sudan since the beginning of the year. This includes life-saving emergency food and nutrition assistance for 2.6 million people displaced or affected by conflict and 800,000 people through the recovery operation to help communities strengthen their resilience to shocks and continued support to refugees, the statement noted.
So far this year, UNICEF, together with partners, has treated more than 76,000 children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Children with SAM are nine times more likely to die than well-nourished children. The UN Children's Fund has a target for the year of reaching 700,000 malnourished children across the country. As part of its multi-sectoral approach to addressing the issue, UNICEF has also provided 500,000 people with safe drinking water and a further 200,000 people with access to sanitation facilities.
The UNICEF, WFP and partners also scaled up the deployment of Rapid Response missions, which use helicopters and air drops to reach cut-off communities. Since February, 25 missions have been completed in Unity, Upper Nile and Jonglei, reaching more than 40,000 children.
FAO has provided fishing, crop- and vegetable-growing kits to more than 2.8 million people, including 200,000 in the famine-affected areas, and vaccinated more than 6 million livestock to save lives through livelihoods.
Famine can only be declared when very specific conditions are met: at least 20 percent of families in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope; acute malnutrition rates exceed 30 percent; and the death rate per day exceeds two adults out of every 10,000 in the population. (end)
mn.khn.hm