South Sudan, the world’s youngest state and long mired in instability and poverty, is receiving the lowest level of international aid since its creation in 2011. Nearly half its population facing food insecurity, the NGO Oxfam warned today.
The country gained independence from Sudan fourteen years ago, then descended into a bloody civil war between 2013 and 2018, which killed at least 400,000 people.
This year, fears of renewed conflict grew after September’s indictment of the vice-president for “crimes against humanity”. Riek Machar was detained in May by forces loyal to President Salva Kiir.
Violence since then has pushed 300,000 South Sudanese to flee abroad, according to UN figures from October. They add to more than two million people already displaced inside the country, Oxfam noted.
South Sudan has also taken in more than one million refugees from neighbouring Sudan.
Lack of international support
Budget cuts from traditional donors, especially the United States, now deprive the population of critical humanitarian aid at the moment they need it most.
In 2025, the country received “the lowest amount ever provided by donors since independence in 2011,” the NGO added.
With only a month left in the year, the $1.6 billion international humanitarian response plan for 2025 was funded by less than 41%.
Hunger crisis deepens
While the state fails to provide even the most basic services, South Sudan’s oil wealth is often diverted by corrupt elites. As a result, “nearly six million people — almost half the population — are suffering severe hunger, with limited access to safe water and health services”. That number may reach 7.5 million by next April, Oxfam said.
“We urge international donors not to forget the crisis in Sudan or its impact on South Sudan. Millions of vulnerable people may be left to die of hunger or face fast-spreading disease if aid is not restored urgently,” warned Shabnam Baloch, Oxfam’s country director in South Sudan.
Immediate call for action
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned earlier this month that the extreme levels of acute food insecurity in the country demand immediate, large-scale action to save lives, protect livelihoods and prevent further deterioration.
A “risk of famine” looms in several areas of South Sudan, potentially affecting nearly 30,000 people in the medium term.
Around 2.1 million children aged between six months and five years may face acute malnutrition and require urgent treatment and feeding between July 2025 and June 2026, according to the same IPC assessment.
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