Millions of children that being war victims in South Sudan is predicted will die soon

News24xx.com -  A United Nations official said more than 250,000 children in war-torn South Sudan risked immediate death from severe malnutrition.

Henrietta H Fore, an executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), issued a stern warning on Friday, January 19, 2018 after visit to some of the areas that most affected by the country's civil war for two days.

"This is a very serious problem in South Sudan," he said as quoted from Al Jazeera from the capital of South Sudan, Juba.

"We are very worried that a quarter of a million children will face death in 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, that destroying agricultural production in the East African country, he said.

"The violence means that many farmers flee from their fields, they are afraid of farming, and makes there is no food in the market." Fore said

Fore also said that South Sudan is now entering the dry season, which "means there is little food and little water that can be found".

"Severe acute and severe malnutrition will soon be happened," he said.

The conflict, which resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people and the displacement of a quarter of 12 million people, has also affected more than half of its children' s population, UNICEF said.

Total 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.

And aid agencies say the delivery of aid services has been complicated by attacks on humanitarian workers. A total of 28 officials were killed at last year.

In December, the goverment of South Sudanese 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.

 

 

 

 

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