In Jonglei State, located in eastern South Sudan, daily life has become a brutal struggle for survival. Trapped between armed conflict, forced displacement, and chronic flooding, thousands of families are sinking into unprecedented humanitarian distress.

The organization Save the Children has issued a critical alert: faced with a total food shortage, many parents and children are now reduced to consuming wild leaves, water lilies, or sacrificing their future harvests by eating the seeds.

Humanitarian workers targeted, populations isolated

Growing insecurity and waves of violence have paralyzed the delivery of international aid. Forced to protect their teams, NGOs have had to scale back or freeze their operations in the most critical areas.

1. Forced withdrawals: Save the Children recently evacuated its staff from Akobo East County. A few months earlier, the NGO had already left the town of Walgak after its facilities were looted.
2. Total isolation: Deprived of assistance, the inhabitants of the flooded areas must cross hostile territories on foot or by canoe for kilometers, at the risk of their lives, to hope to find food or minimal access to care.

Children: the first victims of the chaos

South Sudanese youth are paying the heaviest price in the face of this humanitarian collapse, which seriously jeopardizes their future:

1. School dropouts and forced labor: Thousands of students have abandoned school to try to help their parents find a way to survive.
2. Early marriages: To ease the financial burden on households, the marriage of young girls is increasingly used as a desperate survival strategy.
3. Health emergency: Cases of severe acute malnutrition are increasing at an alarming rate. Without immediate medical attention, the outcome will be fatal for many children.

Famine at the country's doorstep

The figures of the crisis in South Sudan
Population in severe food insecurity	7.8 million people
Area in imminent danger of famine	Several localities in Jonglei State
Main threats	Severe acute malnutrition in children

The latest reports from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) confirm that the country is sliding into extreme food insecurity.

"In some parts of South Sudan, the question is no longer how to live, but simply how to survive until tomorrow."

— Save the Children

Faced with this imminent catastrophe, the organization urges the international community to react urgently and release massive funds before it is definitively too late.