A United Nations official said more than 250,000 children in war-torn South Sudan risked immediate death from severe malnutrition.
Henrietta H Fore, executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), issued a stern warning Friday, January 19, 2018 following a visit to some of the areas most affected by the country's two-day civil war.
"This is a very serious problem in Southern Sudan,"
"We are very worried that a quarter of a million children will face death this year before July 2018."
The war that occurred in 2013 comes after President Salva Kiir accused former Riek Machar deputies of plotting a coup, destroying agricultural production in the East African country, he said.
"The violence means that many farmers flee their fields, they are afraid of farming, and consequently there is no food in the market.
Fore also said that Southern Sudan is now entering the dry season, which "means there is little food, little water to be found".
"Severe and severe acute malnutrition is imminent"
The conflict, which resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people and the displacement of a quarter of the country 's 12 million people, has also affected more than half of its children' s population, UNICEF said.
Some 2.4 million children have been forced to leave their homes since the war broke out. More than 2,300 children have been killed, and 19,000 have been recruited into armed groups.
The agency also said it has documented more than 1,200 cases of sexual violence against children.
More than 70 percent of children are not educated because at least one out of three schools has been damaged or closed.
Despite a worrisome humanitarian crisis, aid agencies say the delivery of aid services has been complicated by attacks on humanitarian workers. A total of 28 officials were killed last year alone.
In December, the South Sudanese side signed a ceasefire agreement in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, and agreed to allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians caught in the fighting.
But the ceasefire has been repeatedly violated, with both sides blaming each other for the offense.
