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UN Footage Highlights Worsening Food Crisis in South Sudan


Residents displaced due to the recent fighting between government and rebel forces in the Upper Nile capital Malakal wait at a World Food Program (WFP) outpost where thousands have taken shelter in Kuernyang Payam, South Sudan, May 2, 2015.
Residents displaced due to the recent fighting between government and rebel forces in the Upper Nile capital Malakal wait at a World Food Program (WFP) outpost where thousands have taken shelter in Kuernyang Payam, South Sudan, May 2, 2015.

The U.N. World Food Program on Wednesday released video highlighting a worsening food crisis in South Sudan, where up to to 5.3 million people could face severe food shortages over the March to September lean season.

WFP footage showed young children waiting at a food distribution center in the northern Bahr El-Ghazal region for malnutrition tests as well as one family saying they were leaving South Sudan for Darfur because of the food crisis.

From January to March, some 2.8 million people were classed as being in "crisis" or "emergency" food situations, with about 40,000 thought to be suffering an outright famine.

The crisis comes despite attempts to end more than two years of fighting, which began in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir sacked his first vice president Riek Machar, triggering ethnically charged violence.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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