‘Famine-like conditions’: 13 die in South Sudan, says agency

By DENG MACHOL
Associated Press

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — An aid agency in South Sudan says that famine-like conditions the country’s southeast have left 13 people dead due to lack of food and water. The Humanitarian Development Consortium has said that hundreds more from the country’s minority Jie community are on the verge of starvation in the northwestern region of Kapoeta in Eastern Equatorial state. Thousands of Jie people have been surviving on wild fruits for food with no sustainable water supply as all attempts to drill boreholes in the areas where they live have failed due to low water levels. Years of civil war, famine, floods and a collapsing economy have taken their toll on South Sudan since it gained its independence in 2011.