Crisis Along the Nile: Impacts on South Sudan's Children

Humanitarian efforts to aid more than 60,000 malnourished children in South Sudan have been hampered by ongoing conflict along the Nile River. According to the United Nations, the affected children are in the northeast, where the impasse has persisted for nearly a month.

The World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF raised alarms, noting that nutrition supplies for Upper Nile State, with its already high malnutrition rates, might be depleted by the month's end if the situation remains unchanged. 'Children are typically first to suffer in emergencies,' commented Mary-Ellen McGroarty, a WFP representative in the region.

The humanitarian crisis is further exacerbated by clashes between government forces and the ethnic Nuer militia, known as the White Army. The ongoing strife has sparked a political crisis, heightening fears of a return to civil war, which ended in 2018. Aid agencies have decided against pre-positioning supplies in insecure areas due to the risk of looting.

(With inputs from agencies.)