A/HRC/45/CRP.3 5 October 2020 English only Human Rights Council Forty-fifth session 14 September–7 October 2020 Agenda item 4 Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention “There is nothing left for us”: starvation as a method of warfare in South Sudan* Conference room paper of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan Summary Since December 2013, the armed conflict in South Sudan has provoked a dire humanitarian crisis which has led to the displacement of nearly 4 million women, men, and children. Around 1.67 million people are currently displaced internally, languishing in camps that barely meet their basic needs and subsisting on rapidly diminishing humanitarian aid. South Sudan enjoys the unenviable status of representing the third largest refugee crisis in the world, with over 2.2 million people having fled abroad as refugees and asylum seekers. At present, 7.5 million residents now require humanitarian assistance, and 1.3 million children under the age of five years are predicted to suffer from malnutrition, which is the highest rate of child malnutrition in the past four years. On-going armed conflict in Central Equatoria, Jonglei, Lakes, Unity, Western Bahr el Ghazal, and Warrap States, as well as in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, continues to obstruct the work of humanitarian actors struggling to ameliorate the crisis. Coinciding with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Sudan on 5 April 2020, prices for staple foods and basic commodities have also escalated drastically, further rendering vulnerable civilians food insecure. Over the past seven years, the brutal armed conflict has impacted mainly on the civilian population, resulting in acute food insecurity and malnutrition across South Sudan which is manifested by several causes, including both intentional and indirect factors. There has been a spike in food insecurity in Western Bahr el Ghazal and Jonglei States which is linked directly to the conflict and therefore almost entirely humaninduced. Pervasive human rights violations, as well as deliberate strategies on the part of both Government and opposition forces to use starvation of civilians as a method of * The information contained in the present document should be read in conjunction with the report of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan (A/HRC/43/56).