In January 2018, 48 percent of the population of South Sudan (just over 5.3 million) was classified in the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) Phases 3 (“Crisis”), 4 (“Emergency”) and 5 (“Catastrophe”). This represents an increase of about 40 percent relative to the same time last year. In July, at the peak of the 2018 lean period, this proportion is expected to rise to 63.4 percent (6.9 million people). The most serious situations are in Unity and Jonglei, where the population in some counties is facing famine or risk of famine, and Northern Bahr el Ghazal.
Food insecurity has again reached new highs during the harvest period of 2017: 70 percent of the population were food insecure, with 14 percent severely food insecure, a slight increase from the values registered one year before. Only 20 percent of the households were found to have acceptable food consumption. The coming lean period of mid-2018 is likely to see food insecurity levels rise further.