South Sudan starves as aid agencies fail to deliver

Only 30 percent of the annual target has been reached so far, more than half-way through the year, a UN official in Khartoum has warned.

"The shortfall is 70 percent and we are already in the middle of the year," said Arnauld Akodjenou, Regional Refugee Coordinator for South Sudan.

“We have the facility to help and provide food but the level of food is so low that we cannot.”

Oxfam International's executive director Winnie Byanyima said in May that a huge funding shortfall for relief efforts was threatening lives.

"The need is huge, the gap is huge," Byanyima said. "It needs to be filled urgently. When people die in a famine it's a sign of failure because you can prevent it if you act early enough."

In February, South Sudan and the United Nations formally declared a famine in some parts of the northern Greater Unity region affecting 100,000 people, a disaster UN officials said was "man-made" and could have been averted.

This is largely the result of civil war that erupted in December 2013 when a power struggle erupted between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar. Tens of thousands died and more than 3.5 million have been displaced.

The UN's agencies for refugees (UNHCR) and children's welfare (UNICEF) reported earlier this year that the number of children who had fled the country exceeded the one million mark for the first time.

On July 8, the US announced an additional $466 million in aid for countries suffering from famine, bringing its total aid budget to $1.4 billion.

The UN made an appeal earlier this year for $4.4 billion to address the global crisis, but as of the end of May, it was only 30 percent funded.