Aid agencies warn that time is running out to avoid an ‘irreversible humanitarian catastrophe’.

Nearly eight million people in South Sudan are at risk of acute hunger as conflict and displacement worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis, according to a United Nations report.

Published on Tuesday, the report warns that 7.8 million people in the West African country will suffer high levels of food insecurity in the coming months — equivalent to 56 percent of the population.

The Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Programme and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have called on the international community to take immediate action to prevent what they described as an “irreversible humanitarian catastrophe”.

The report states that the number of children aged between six months and five years old who are suffering from acute malnutrition has risen by 100,000 over the past six months, to a total 2.2 million. It estimates that 700,000 children are at grave risk of dying.

Many nutritional services in South Sudan have been damaged or closed due to ongoing fighting, driving up the number of people at risk of acute malnutrition. Meanwhile, supply shortages and inadequate funding have reduced access to life-saving treatment.

The humanitarian crisis in South Sudan — the world’s youngest country — is being fuelled by ethnic conflict, climate change and the spillover of fighting from neighbouring Sudan, with which it broke following a referendum in 2011.

The country’s worsening economic crisis has further compounded the situation. South Sudan remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

In recent months, fears have grown that the nation could return to all-out civil war, more than seven years after a peace agreement in 2018 ostensibly ended fighting that led to the deaths of nearly 400,000 people.

Heavy clashes between the state army, the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces, and opposition groups have intensified in recent months.

The tensions stem from a long-standing feud between President Salva Kiir Mayardit and suspended Vice President Riek Machar, who is currently on trial in Juba on charges of murder, treason and crimes against humanity, which he denies.