South Sudan has fertile land - So why are 5.5 MILLION PEOPLE starving?

A new report indicates about 50 percent of South Sudan's population will be at risk of starvation within the next few months.

South Sudan has made headlines recently as a famine was officially declared and images of starving children pop up everywhere - but why is the country in such a state of turmoil?

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to Serge Tissot, the head of the Food and Agriculture Organization in South Sudan, civil war and a broken economy are to blame for the "man-made famine."

Tissot told Aljazeera the civil war has disrupted farming the fertile lands and has led many to rely on "whatever plants they can find and fish they can catch."

Jeremy Hopkins, the head of the UN children's agency in South Sudan, reported over 250,000 children are severely malnourished and are at risk of death while nearly three-quarters of all households suffer from inadequate food.

Several reports indicate about 5.5 million people, or roughly 50 percent of the country, will be starving within the next few months.

Tissot simply stated, "Our worst fears have been realised."

Joyce Luma, the chief of the World Food Programme (WFP), explained, "This famine is man-made. WFP and the entire humanitarian community have been trying with all our might to avoid this catastrophe, mounting a humanitarian response of a scale that quite frankly would have seemed impossible three years ago.

"But we have also warned that there is only so much that humanitarian assistance can achieve in the absence of meaningful peace and security, both for relief workers and the crisis-affected people they serve."

The WFP has plans to provide food and nutrition assistance during the "hunger season" - the time of year between last harvests but before new crops are ready. They are preparing to help 4.1 million people with emergency food, cash and nutrition assistance but it may not be enough.

While WFP works to feed people, UNICEF is preparing to treat 207,000 children for severe malnutrition.

Other humanitarian groups are attempting to offer help but until the civil war is over, the future of South Sudan's people remains devastatingly grim.

---

The California Network is the Next Wave in delivery of information and entertainment on pop culture, social trends, lifestyle, entertainment, news, politics and economics. We are hyper-focused on one audience, YOU, the connected generation. JOIN US AS WE REDEFINE AND REVOLUTIONIZE THE EVER-CHANGING MEDIA LANDSCAPE.