Publication Date March 14, 2017 | NPR.org

Why The Famine In South Sudan Keeps Getting Worse

South Sudan
Women carry food in gunny bags after visiting an aid distribution center in South Sudan on March 10. Photo: Albert Gonzalez Farran, AFP, Getty Images
Women carry food in gunny bags after visiting an aid distribution center in South Sudan on March 10. Photo: Albert Gonzalez Farran, AFP, Getty Images

Things are spiraling downward in South Sudan, one of four nations where, according to the U.N., the greatest humanitarian crisis since 1945 is unfolding...

Last month the U.N. declared a famine in two parts of the country and warned that nearly half the population is in urgent need of food assistance.

...

This same pattern is playing out in three other countries in the world right now, prompting the U.N. to declare that it's facing the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.

Violence in Yemen, according to the U.N., has left 18 million people — nearly two-thirds of the country — in need of humanitarian aid. Drought combined with chaos and extremist militants in Somalia are leaving millions hungry there. And in West Africa, Boko Haram fighters have terrorized people across large swaths of Northern Nigeria, driven farmers from their land and left a massive food shortage in their wake.