AfDB Gives $44 Million to Fight Threat of Famine in South Sudan

The African Development Bank gave $43.57 million to fight unprecedented levels of hunger in South Sudan, where civil war has put the country on the verge of its second famine in two years.

The funds will be distributed to aid groups by the World Food Programme and “help to ensure provision of emergency food assistance to the most vulnerable segments of the population,” AfDB’s country director, Benedict Kanu, told reporters Wednesday in the capital, Juba.

Despite September’s harvests, as many as 5.2 million people -- roughly half South Sudan’s population -- will continue to suffer critical hunger between January and March, the WFP said in a statement. Some 36,000 people will experience “famine-like conditions” in parts of the country, it said.