Super El Niño and Conflict Push Over Half of South Sudan’s Population into Acute Hunger

The World Food Programme estimates that about 7.8 million South Sudanese—more than half the country’s population—are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity. Among them, roughly 2.2 million children require urgent nutrition support, and an additional 1.2 million pregnant or breastfeeding mothers also need specialized assistance. These figures illustrate a crisis in which daily food intake is insufficient for millions, placing the nation among the world’s most food‑insecure contexts. The scale of need has grown faster than the capacity of existing humanitarian programmes, prompting warnings that without rapid intervention the situation could deteriorate further.

The “super” El Niño developing this year has already disrupted rainfall patterns, turning traditionally fertile zones into drought‑stricken fields and causing crop failures across the country. The climate shock coincides with ongoing conflict, including fighting that forces people to flee across the border into Sudan. Each week, about 3,000 refugees and South Sudanese returning from Sudan arrive seeking safety, food, water and shelter, adding pressure to already strained host communities. The combined effect of climate‑driven agricultural loss and war‑induced displacement is deepening vulnerability not only in South Sudan but also in neighboring Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya.

Humanitarian operations are now hampered by funding gaps and severe access constraints. WFP officials warn that without additional resources, a further one million vulnerable people could lose life‑saving food and nutrition assistance by October. Transporting aid along the River Nile faces illegal checkpoints and ad‑hoc taxation by armed groups, inflating operational costs and slowing deliveries. In Upper Nile’s capital Malakal, most food items must be flown in because road and barge routes are prohibitively expensive after accounting for these levies. These logistical hurdles, combined with dwindling donor contributions, threaten to curtail the reach of emergency nutrition programmes at a critical moment.