Reconstruction
On 20 February 2017, South Sudan’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Technical Working Group declared famine in Leer and Mayendit counties, in the southern part of the former Unity State. Almost five million people nationwide were estimated to need urgent food assistance, including about 100,000 facing famine conditions. The declaration was not simply another word for severe hunger: IPC famine classification combined evidence concerning extreme food deprivation, acute malnutrition and mortality. Because fighting prevented normal data collection, however, the official alert acknowledged that its conclusions relied partly on expert judgment and did not fully meet the usual minimum-evidence requirements.
The famine followed more than three years of civil war. Attacks and forced displacement separated farmers from fields, livestock and tools; earlier UN investigations documented food being stolen or burned and cattle taken during operations in southern Unity. Insecurity also disrupted markets and trade routes, while inflation pushed staple prices beyond many households’ reach. Dispersed internally displaced people and the communities sheltering them were especially vulnerable, and restrictions on humanitarian access prevented assistance from consistently reaching remote settlements.
Ordinary diets in South Sudan depended heavily on sorghum and millet, prepared as porridge or flatbread, with livestock products, pulses, fish and gathered plants varying by livelihood and season. These foods did not disappear uniformly, but access collapsed. Households skipped meals, exhausted grain stores and relied more intensely on fish and wild plants. In the wetlands of Unity State, water-lily fruit could be ground into flour and cooked with water as a paste replacing sorghum or maize; roots were also collected after the fruit was exhausted. Such foods were part of established seasonal knowledge, not newly invented famine substitutes, but consuming them more frequently and under dangerous conditions was evidence of severe stress.
Humanitarian operations supplied cereals, pulses, vegetable oil and salt, alongside fortified blended foods for vulnerable children and mothers. Ready-to-use therapeutic or supplementary foods treated acute malnutrition, while agricultural, fishing and livestock support sought to preserve remaining livelihoods. Access remained decisive: food could not protect people if roads, waterways, air operations or distribution points were blocked by violence.
By June 2017, after a major expansion of assistance, the technical famine designation no longer applied in Leer and Mayendit. This was a precarious improvement, not the end of the crisis: approximately six million South Sudanese were then struggling to obtain enough food. The episode demonstrated that famine was produced through the interaction of conflict, displacement, market failure, asset destruction, disease and restricted relief—not merely insufficient rainfall. Its lasting food-system consequences included lost herds and harvests, prolonged displacement, weakened markets and recurring dependence on emergency nutrition and livelihood support.
Historical context
South Sudan was only six years removed from independence on 9 July 2011 and in the fourth year of a civil war that began in December 2013. In early 2017, UN agencies estimated that roughly 1.9–2.1 million people were displaced inside the country and more than 1.5 million had fled abroad. The February IPC analysis placed 4.9 million people—about 42 percent of the estimated national population—in Crisis, Emergency or Catastrophe. Unity State combined floodplain agriculture, cattle keeping, fishing and gathered wetland foods, but conflict had fractured the movement of people, livestock, goods and humanitarian supplies on which that mixed food system depended.
Evidence
Written sources
StrongThe declaration, affected counties, population estimates, principal drivers and recommended response are recorded in contemporaneous IPC, FAO, WFP, UNICEF and United Nations documents.
Dating
StrongThe formal public declaration was issued on 20 February 2017, and an updated analysis reported on 21 June 2017 that the famine classification no longer applied in Leer and Mayendit.
Geographic attribution
StrongThe official alert specifically declared famine in Leer and Mayendit counties of Greater Unity; Koch and Panyijiar had different risk or assistance-dependent classifications.
Food identification
ModerateOfficial and field research identifies sorghum, millet, fish, livestock products, pulses, water lilies and humanitarian commodities as relevant foods. These sources describe regional and assessed household practices, not the exact diet of every affected person.
Preparation method
ModerateFAO and field research directly document grinding water-lily fruit into powder and cooking it with water as a cereal substitute. Broader descriptions of porridge, flatbread and relief-food preparation are documented practices but should not be treated as observations from every famine-affected settlement.
Historical interpretation
ModerateConflict, displacement, livelihood destruction, market disruption, high prices and restricted humanitarian access are strongly documented drivers. The precise contribution of each driver varied by county and household, and insecurity created important data gaps.
Sources
- 1.South Sudan IPC Technical Working Group (2017). Localized Famine and Unprecedented Levels of Acute Malnutrition in Greater Unity. IPC Alert, Issue 6. www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/doHistorical primary source
- 2.IPC Global Emergency Review Committee (2017). Conclusions and Recommendations on the South Sudan Preliminary IPC Country Results, February 2017. Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/doHistorical primary source
- 3.United Nations Mission in South Sudan and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (2015). The State of Human Rights in the Protracted Conflict in South Sudan. United Nations. www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/CounHistorical primary source
- 4.Hilary Dragicevic (2017). Everything Except the Soil: Understanding Wild Food Consumption During the Lean Season in South Sudan. Oxfam. doi:10.21201/2017.1015Modern synthesis
- 5.Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2016). South Sudan, 2016: Water Lilies to Eat. FAO Digital Media Hub. digital-media.fao.org/archive/South-Sudan---2016Historical primary source
- 6.Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, UNICEF and World Food Programme (2017). South Sudan Famine Ebbs, but Situation Still Desperate as Hunger Spreads. UNICEF. www.unicef.org/press-releases/south-sudan-famineHistorical primary source
Limitations
- moderatedescription
Saying that IPC analysis simply 'confirmed famine in parts of Unity State' omits an important methodological qualification. The February 2017 alert declared famine in Leer and Mayendit, but stated that the conclusion was based partly on Emergency Review Committee professional judgment and was not in full accordance with IPC minimum-evidence requirements. The committee's step-one findings were more qualified, particularly for Mayendit and for areas lacking mortality data.
- minoris technology
The event was a famine classification and humanitarian crisis, not a food-production or preservation technology. IPC is an analytical classification framework, so treating the card itself as a technology may misrepresent its record type.
