Millions at risk in South Sudan as Ukraine war forces slashing of aid

Four grieving women in Lekuangole, South Sudan, who have all seen their children die from starvation. Photograph: Sam Mednick/AP

The World Food Programme has said it is suspending food aid to 1.7 million people in South Sudan, as the war in Ukraine sucks funding from the world’s crisis-plagued youngest country and causes the price of staples to soar.

The UN’s emergency food assistance agency said it had planned to deliver aid to more than 6 million acutely food-insecure people in South Sudan this year, as it did in 2021, albeit with smaller rations.