South Sudan: World Food Programme airdrops food, warns of famine

The World Food Program says that over 40,000 people in South Sudan's conflict-ridden Upper Nile region are "desperately" hungry.

In response, the organisation has begun dropping food by air, its first humanitarian aid delivery to the region in the last four months.

"Livelihoods have been destroyed, people have been displaced, and now people are at a real risk of famine because of the conflict," said Mary-Ellen McGroarty, WFP's South Sudan Country Director.

The UN agency said some 32,000 people face “catastrophic levels of hunger” and more than one million people in Upper Nile face "acute hunger.”

McGroarty described the WFP airdrops as "crucial and critical to bring people back from the brink of famine.”

The agency has said the continued fighting in the region is hampering the humanitarian effort, as reaching thousands of displaced people poses additional challenges. Upper Nile has been the scene of fighting between government troops and armed militias that oppose the government of President Salva Kiir. The fighting has led to U.N. warnings that South Sudan is again on the brink of civil war.