South Sudan pushed to the brink by war and hunger

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Caitlin Brady, an aid worker with Save the Children in South Sudan, said about 4 million people in the country are "very, very” hungry – more than 2 million of them children.

"It’s a very dire situation," she said. "Responding to hunger is probably the number one priority. The aid community has stepped up to try and respond but we need to do more."

The Australian government has contributed $13.4 million to help the hungry in South Sudan since the outbreak of the crisis in December. But that’s only about a third of what it gave to assist victims of Typhoon Haiyan which hit the Philippines last year.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Wednesday that "funding for life-saving assistance has dwindled" in South Sudan even though food security in the country is deteriorating. Edmond Mulet, the UN assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, underscored the gravity of the emergency on Thursday when he said South Sudan was "on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe".

Thousands of farmers have fled their land because of the fighting making food scarce, especially in areas like Akobo which are no longer under government control. Many parents are foraging for grass and berries in a desperate bid to feed their families. Nearly a third of children aged under-five in Akobo district are malnourished.

Nykuoth Long, a mother of eight from Dengjok village near Akobo, is pessimistic about her children’s prospects because food is so scarce. Her eight-month-old daughter, Nyakong, is severely malnourished but because aid groups working in the village have run out of the nutritious peanut paste used to combat malnutrition she cannot be treated.

"If it stays like this my children may die," Nykuoth said.

In 2010 aid officials declared Akobo the "hungriest place on earth" following two years of drought. Now the district is famished again thanks to war.

The conflict is focused in three states of South Sudan and aid officials estimate about a third of the population faces "dangerous levels of food insecurity". In other words, they don’t know when and how their next meal is coming.

To make matters worse, cholera has broken out, claiming more than 100 lives so far. The disease has recently spread to new areas and the fatality rate in South Sudan is now well above what health experts deem to be an "emergency threshold".

The aid effort has been hampered by deadly attacks on humanitarian workers. Earlier this week six unarmed aid workers were killed in the northern region of Maban where more than 100,000 refugees are sheltering. US Secretary of State John Kerry said the killings were "simply appalling" and called on all parties to refrain from intimidating humanitarian workers. But the killings will "adversely and dramatically impact humanitarian operations" in the region, aid officials said.

Civil war erupted in December after President Salva Kiir accused his vice-president, Riek Machar, of staging a coup. Mr Machar denied the allegation but marshalled a rebel army to fight the government. The political stoush has split the country along ethnic lines, sparking bloodshed between South Sudan’s two biggest tribal groups – Kiir’s Dinkas and Machar’s Nuers. The warring parties are under intense pressure to reconcile but a series of peace deals brokered this year have not stopped the bloodshed. Talks aiming to end hostilities and form a "transitional government" resumed in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, this week but they have been plagued by disagreements over who should take part.

About 1.1 million people in South Sudan have been internally displaced because of the fighting and many of them have been living rough in makeshift camps for eight months. Another 434,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries especially Ethiopia and Uganda.

* Matt Wade and photographer Edwina Pickles were supported by Save the Children Australia to report from South Sudan.

How you can help:

Save the Children South Sudan Crisis Appeal

1800 76 00 11