Red Cross calls for urgent action to avert humanitarian crisis in S. Sudan

Hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese are facing starvation, lack of drinking water and health care, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday, calling for urgent action to avert the humanitarian crisis.

Head of ICRC operations for Eastern Africa, Eric Marclay, said the humanitarian situation in the world's youngest state is deteriorating rapidly.

"There is a desperate need for food and drinking water and access to health care. If the situation does not improve, the lives of hundreds of thousands of people are threatened," Marclay said in a statement received in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Heavy fighting in South Sudan's Unity and Upper Nile states over the last two months has displaced more than 100,000 people and blocked aid delivery for some 650,000 people as humanitarian institutions have been forced to withdraw, according to United Nations refugee agency.

Since the beginning of the year, some 60,000 South Sudanese have fled the country, mostly to Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda, bringing the total number of people who escaped the country since December 2013 to 555,000.

Some 1.5 million are internally displaced, and more than 3.8 million -- one third of the country's population -- do not have sufficient food.

The ICRC appealed to donors for an additional 23 million U.S. dollars to produce a total budget of 162 million dollars, saying more substantial effort is needed.

The institution aims to distribute food to up to 340,000 people though the initial plans were for 150,000, and to increase seed distributions and cattle vaccinations.

South Sudan is the ICRC's second largest area of operation in the world, after Syria.

Marclay said there is an urgent need for civilians to be respected, unconditionally.

"Warring parties, the international community and aid agencies must take immediate, sustained and wide-ranging action," he said.

The situation is particularly severe in some of the regions in Unity, Upper Nile and Jonglei states, he added.

"Economic activity is minimal, food prices are rising and basic services, limited. The ICRC has been providing substantial support to local communities," Maclay said.

"We have received several reports of direct attacks on civilians. Our medical teams are performing life-saving surgery around the clock to cope with the influx of wounded. The humanitarian situation is deteriorating. Many people have been killed and wounded. Some people have been displaced for the second or third time," he added. Endi