Almost 2,50,000 children facing starvation in South Sudan, says UN

Almost 2,50,000 children are facing starvation in South Sudan due to the military battles witnessed by the nation since 2013, the United Nations has warned.

Toby Lanzer, the UN humanitarian coordinator who was recently expelled from South Sudan, said that in half of the country, one in three children were acutely malnourished, reported Xinhua. He also noted that about two-thirds of the country's 12 million people were in dire need of aid as around 4.5 million faced severe food vulnerability. Lanzer added that a continuing war in South Sudan will lead to 'economic collapse'.

The country attained independence from Sudan in 2011 but plunged into crisis in December 2013 as troops loyal to President Salva Kiir clashed with defectors led by his former deputy Riek Machar.

The conflict soon became a full-blown war, with violence taking an ethnic flavour. It left thousands of South Sudanese dead and compelled around 1.9 million people to flee.