Juba 20 Feb (ANA) - A famine has been declared in parts of South Sudan, the first to be announced in any part of the world in six years. The government and the United Nations report that some 100,000 people are facing starvation, with a million more on the brink of famine. A combination of civil war and an economic collapse have been blamed. There have been warnings of famine in Yemen, Somalia and north-eastern Nigeria, but South Sudan is the first to declare one. The famine is currently affecting parts of to Unity state in South Sudan, but humanitarian groups have warned that the crisis could spread if urgent help is not received. Aid agencies, including the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the children's fund Unicef, said that 4.9 million people - more than 40% of South Sudan's population - are in urgent need of food. Head of the WFP in South Sudan, Joyce Luma, said that the famine was "man-made" after three years of conflict across the country stifled crop production and hit farmers and rural livelihoods. The impact of the conflict, combined with high food prices, economic disruption and low agricultural production has resulted in the area becoming "food insecure", the report added. It is not the first time South Sudan has experienced such a crisis. When it fought for independence from Sudan in 1998, the territory suffered from a famine spurred by civil war.(ANA)

FA/ANA/20 February 2017---