Fighting in South Sudan stops aid reaching starving thousands

Fighting in northern South Sudan is preventing lifesaving aid from reaching thousands of people living in “inhumane conditions”, including starving children, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Thursday.

It called for warring parties to allow aid into Malakal, a town in Upper Nile State in the north of the country, which government forces recaptured from rebels on July 6.

Almost 80 children with acute malnutrition, usually fatal without medical care, cannot receive treatment at MSF’s health centre in Wau Shilluk, on the outskirts of Malakal, because of the fighting, MSF said in a statement. t has been able to make only one delivery of food and medical supplies to the centre in the past six weeks, it said.

“There is currently no way to resupply them with essential ready-to-use therapeutic food.”

Malakal airport has been closed for over two weeks as government forces try to secure the area from rebels, military spokesman Philip Aguer said.