A/HRC/45/CRP.3 2020), an estimated 5.29 million people, accounting for more than 45 per cent of people countrywide – mainly women and children – are classified as being “in Crisis” (IPC Phase 3), or worse. Among them, an estimated 1.11 million are facing “Emergency” (IPC Phase 4) levels of acute food insecurity, while some 40,000 people in the recently flood-affected counties of Jonglei State are classified as being in “Catastrophe” (IPC Phase 5)6 (see paras. 117-122, below). The situation is particularly critical for children, with more than 290,000 children across South Sudan currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and more than one 1 million children suffering from moderate acute malnutrition. Some 352,000 pregnant and lactating women are also suffering from acute malnutrition.7 5. Due to severe food shortages, malnutrition regularly compromises the natural immunity of South Sudanese women, men, and children, and increases their susceptibilities to infection and severe episodes of communicable disease, including measles, malaria, diarrheal diseases, and tuberculosis.8 Such diseases first affect the most vulnerable, including children, the elderly, and parturient mothers, many of whom have perished as a result of preventable deaths.9 At present, the Human Development Index, which measures basic dimensions of human development, ranked South Sudan as the fourth worst nation state in which to reside, at 186 out of 189 countries.10 6. Over the past seven years, acute food insecurity and malnutrition across South Sudan have been the outcome of several causes, including both intentional and indirect factors. There has been a discernible 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, including deliberate strategies on the part of both Government and opposition forces to use starvation as a method of warfare, have contributed to the food insecurity in Western Bahr el Ghazal, Jonglei, and Central Equatoria States. The historical legacy of decades of conflict in Sudan were similarly marked by pervasive human rights violations which triggered hunger and severe food insecurity, including a famine in Bahr el Ghazal in 1998. Based on the historical patterns and their consequences, parties to the current conflict should therefore have been aware that the continued perpetration of such violations would certainly again lead to the starvation of civilians.11 7. In the present report, food insecurity and the lack of access to adequate nutrition are examined primarily in the context of starvation as a method of warfare, which should be understood as being distinct from situations of hunger more generally. Starvation as a method of warfare encompasses the intentional deprivation not only of food or water, but also of other goods indispensable to the survival of a civilian population. Illicit methods of warfare include depriving individuals of their ability to obtain food, degrading public October 2013, 29 July 2013, available at http://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_SouthSudan_AcuteFI_Situation_2013JulOct_Proj.pdf. 6 South Sudan: Acute Food Insecurity and Acute Malnutrition Situation January 2020 and Projections for February - April 2020 and May - July 2020, INTEGRATED FOOD SECURITY PHASE CLASSIFICATION (IPC), available at http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipccountry-analysis/details-map/en/c/1152422. 7 Acute Food Insecurity and Acute Malnutrition Analysis, January 2020 - July 2020, INTEGRATED FOOD SECURITY PHASE CLASSIFICATION (IPC), issued February 2020, available at http://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_SouthSudan_AFI_AMN_2020Jan2020July.pdf, at p. 7. 8 See, e.g., Communicable diseases and severe food shortage situations, UNITED NATIONS WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO), 25 August 2005, available at https://www.who.int/diseasecontrol_emergencies/guidelines/Severe_food_shortages.pdf. 9 It is estimated that 1.3 million children in South Sudan will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2020. See Hunger threatens over half of the population in South Sudan, UNITED NATIONS WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME (WFP), 20 February 2020, available at https://www.wfp.org/news/hunger-threatens-over-half-population-south-sudan. 10 South Sudan Human Development Indicators, UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (UNDP), 2019, available at http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/SSD. 11 See, e.g., Famine in Sudan, 1998: The Human Rights Causes, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, 8 February 1999, available at https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/sudan/SUDAWEB2.htm#P374_19682. 5