A new United Nations–backed report warns that nearly 2.3 million children under age five in South Sudan will need treatment for acute malnutrition this year, including more than 700,000 in life-threatening condition (UNICEF/UN OCHA, Sept. 2025). The crisis is driven by renewed violence, reduced aid, climate shocks, and entrenched corruption—yet global attention has often been focused on the genocide in Gaza, overshadowing another humanitarian emergency.
Children on the brink
At hospitals, mothers sit with emaciated children as health workers struggle to cope with surging admissions. Action Against Hunger reports that malnutrition cases have more than doubled this year. “Twenty-two percent of children admitted at Juba’s main children’s hospital have died,” said Clement Papy Nkubizi, the group’s country director, in remarks reported by the Associated Press (AP, Sept. 2025). Funding cuts forced the closure of 28 nutrition centers, leaving families to walk hours for treatment.
Ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF)—a peanut paste that saves millions worldwide—is running dangerously low after U.S. aid reductions, according to Nkubizi. UNICEF says two-thirds of malnutrition treatment sites nationwide now report reduced staffing.
Conflict and access
Although a peace deal was signed in 2018, clashes between government troops and militias have reignited in northern states, including Upper Nile, where malnutrition levels are highest. The UN said fighting along the White Nile in May prevented supplies from reaching 60,000 children already in crisis (UN OCHA briefing, June 2025).
Violence has also disrupted aid operations. Action Against Hunger abandoned warehouses after a bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital killed seven people in May (Médecins Sans Frontières, press statement, May 2025). Flooding then submerged farmland and aid sites, with 1.6 million people at risk of displacement. “Malnutrition is not just about food—disease outbreaks and poor sanitation worsen it,” said Shaun Hughes, World Food Programme’s emergency coordinator, to AP.
Economics and corruption
The neighboring war in Sudan has worsened trade disruptions and pushed up prices of staples. The African Development Bank estimates that 92% of South Sudanese now live below the poverty line, up 12% from last year. Many families sell cattle, pull children out of school, or migrate in search of food.
At Maban County Hospital near the Sudan border, nutritionist Butros Khalil told AP that staff have not been paid in months. “We are just eating leaves from the bush,” he said. U.S. funding cuts ended support for school meals, raising fears that children will slide from moderate into severe hunger.
Meanwhile, the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan accused officials of looting billions of dollars. Chair Yasmin Sooka said those funds “could have built schools, staffed hospitals and secured food” but instead are “the engine of South Sudan’s collapse” (UN HRC, Sept. 2025).
Overshadowed by global crises
South Sudan, independent since 2011, remains one of the world’s most aid-dependent nations, with nine million of its 12 million people needing assistance. Yet global awareness is limited. Analysts warn that as headlines focus on Gaza, South Sudan’s hunger crisis risks being overlooked—despite the fact that children there are already dying in large numbers. The suffering of South Sudan’s youngest citizens shows that humanitarian need is not confined to one conflict zone. Without renewed aid and accountability, an entire generation risks being lost in the shadows.
