Renewed Fighting Deepens South Sudan Hunger Crisis; 7.8 Million Face Acute Food Insecurity

Civilians are starving in South Sudan’s conflict areas as renewed fighting deepens one of the world’s worst hunger crises, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday, citing a new U.N.-backed food security update that found 7.8 million people will face acute food insecurity from April through July. The assessment, published April 28 by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, estimated that about 73,000 people in parts of Jonglei and Upper Nile states are already in Phase 5, or Catastrophe, the most extreme household-level hunger classification.

The IPC said parts of Jonglei and Upper Nile are also at risk of famine. Across the country, about 2.2 million children ages 6 to 59 months are projected to be acutely malnourished, including roughly 700,000 expected to suffer severe acute malnutrition. That is about 100,000 more children than six months earlier. The new projection is also worse than the previous IPC analysis from September 2025, which estimated 7.5 million people in Phase 3, or Crisis, and above.

Human Rights Watch, in a dispatch published May 6, said actions by South Sudan’s warring parties are worsening hunger in conflict areas that were already difficult for aid groups to reach. Fighting between South Sudan government forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition, or SPLA/IO, has intensified since late 2025, especially in Jonglei and Upper Nile. Human Rights Watch said both sides have issued evacuation orders, with several unlawful because of their sweeping scope, and said the government has also taken steps to block aid access in opposition-held areas. U.N. agencies have similarly warned that conflict, displacement, restricted access and attacks on health and aid infrastructure are driving the deterioration, alongside economic decline, climate shocks and lower agricultural production.

“Repeated pressure, from both South Sudanese authorities and opposition forces, on civilians to evacuate populated areas is placing hundreds of thousands of people in harm’s way,” Nyagoah Tut Pur, a Human Rights Watch researcher, said in an April 12 release.

One example cited by Human Rights Watch came on March 6, when the South Sudan military ordered civilians, U.N. personnel and aid organizations to evacuate Akobo County, including Akobo town. Human Rights Watch and aid groups said the order prompted civilians to flee and led some aid workers to withdraw. The IPC identified Akobo among the counties facing the gravest conditions, along with Fangak, Nyirol and Uror in Jonglei and Luakpiny/Nasir and Ulang in Upper Nile.

Aid agencies have also reported direct damage to medical services. Médecins Sans Frontières said its hospital in Lankien, in Jonglei state, was hit by an airstrike on Feb. 3 and was later permanently closed after looting and vandalism. Rights groups and humanitarian organizations have also documented killings, sexual violence, looting and the burning of civilian property in the conflict areas. Humanitarian reporting has put displacement in Jonglei at roughly 280,000 people since the escalation in December 2025.

The IPC is the standard food security assessment used by U.N. agencies and humanitarian groups, and its latest update underscores how quickly conditions are worsening. On April 28, UNICEF, the World Food Program and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization warned that conflict, displacement, restricted access and attacks on health and aid infrastructure were accelerating the crisis and appealed for safe humanitarian access and more support.

“We are now engaged in a critical race against time to expedite and increase our deliveries to remote locations,” Ross Smith, the World Food Program’s director of emergencies and preparedness, said in the joint release. “We are deeply concerned about the plight of many whom we may be unable to reach due to the ongoing challenges.”