South Sudan refugees malnutrition

A hunger emergency is looming on the border between South Sudan and Sudan as families fleeing fighting in Sudan continue to cross the border every day. New data gathered by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) shows that among the nearly 300,000 people who have arrived in South Sudan in the last five months, one in five children are malnourished and 90 percent of families say they are going multiple days without eating.

Screening data from the border crossing found that almost 20 percent of children under five and more than a quarter of pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished. WFP is providing food assistance to meet the immediate needs of the families at the border as well as providing specialized nutrition support for children and mothers. But WFP urgently requires more than US$120 million to increase support over the next few months.