South Sudan Children Survive On Waterlilies As Crisis Escalates

S.Sudan_.8_0

Not less than 1 million children in South Sudan have been forced to flee their homes since conflict started a year ago, while some of them are surviving on waterlily roots, the U.N. children’s agency warned on Friday, saying there may be famine next year. Reuters was there:

Some 12,000 children are being used by armed groups and others are increasingly vulnerable to violence, sexual abuse and exploitation, the agency added.

“The situation on the ground is horrific,” UNICEF spokeswoman Doune Porter said from the capital Juba. “Time and again I hear colleagues who’ve worked in many other emergencies saying ‘we’ve never seen anything this bad’.”

Fighting between government and rebel forces, which began on Dec. 15 last year, has killed more than 10,000 people in the world’s newest state, reopening fault lines among ethnic groups.

Almost 750,000 children have been internally displaced and more than 320,000 have fled to neighboring countries. Some 400,000 are out of school and child malnutrition rates have more than doubled, UNICEF said.