More than 7.7 million South Sudanese, around 63 per cent of the population, are facing a food crisis as violence intensifies in the country, the government and United Nations said on Saturday.
The figure marks a seven-per cent hike on the figure reported last year. According to the joint report, which was presented to the press on Saturday, climatic shocks such as floods and droughts, and population displacements are contributing to the increased food insecurity, as well as the ongoing armed clashes.
South Sudan -- the world's newest nation -- has suffered from chronic instability since independence in 2011, spending almost half of its life as a nation at war.
The country was in 2013 plunged into a brutal five-year civil war between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and veteran opposition leader Riek Machar.
The war cost almost 400,000 lives and uprooted millions from their homes.
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