The World Food Programme (WFP) has begun airdropping crucial food aid to remote areas of South Sudan, where escalating conflict has pushed tens of thousands to the brink of famine.
This intervention comes as violence intensifies across the unstable East African nation.
The recent surge in hostilities stems from simmering tensions between President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar, which erupted into open conflict in March.
This alarming development has fueled fears of a return to the full-scale civil war that devastated the impoverished country between 2013 and 2018, claiming an estimated 400,000 lives.
The WFP announced its first access in over four months, delivering life-saving food and nutrition assistance to more than 40,000 people in the most isolated parts of Nasir and Ulang counties, areas only reachable by air.
The agency highlighted the dire situation in Upper Nile state, bordering war-torn Sudan, where over one million people face acute hunger.
This includes more than 32,000 people already experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger, a figure that has tripled since the conflict flared and triggered mass displacement.
Fighting has effectively blocked main river routes, which are typically the most cost-effective way to deliver aid to large sections of Upper Nile and northern Jonglei state.
Across South Sudan, a staggering 7.7 million people—57 percent of the population—are grappling with crisis, emergency, or catastrophic levels of hunger.
Compounding the crisis, a significant funding shortfall has forced the WFP to prioritize assistance, providing reduced rations to only the most vulnerable 2.5 million people.
The agency has urgently appealed for $274 million to continue its life-saving operations through December.