Up to 50,000 children can be killed due to the serious risk of famine that has been caused through the conflict of South Sudan if immediate action is not taken, UN warned on Friday.
Since its independence in 2011, high levels of malnutrition have been experienced by the African country, UNICEF said. According to Agence France-Presse, conditions have worsened since ethnic conflict broke out between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and supporters of his former deputy Riek Machar.
"Now the ongoing conflict has pushed them to the edge -- unless treatment is scaled up immediately, up to 50,000 children under the age of five are likely to die," the agency said.
It estimates that 3.7 million people are at risk of "food insecurity," according to AFP.
"Sadly, worse is yet to come. If conflict continues, and farmers miss the planting season, we will see child malnutrition on a scale never before experienced here," said Jonathan Veitch, UNICEF representative in South Sudan.
"If we cannot get more funds and better access to reach malnourished children in South Sudan, tens of thousands of under-fives will die."
The treatment of 150,000 severely malnourished children under five with food supplements, vitamins and water purification tablets, and to help pregnant or nursing women is the immediate goal of UNICEF.
"To do so, it needs $38 million but has so far raised only $4.6 million," AFP reported. "The United Nations, whose World Food Programme stocks in the country have been looted, has warned that the fighting puts in danger harvests that are crucial to staving off a worse humanitarian disaster."
The conflict has nearly displaced 900,000 people.
