South Sudan facing chronic food shortages, U.N. agencies say

U.N. agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), are warning that South Sudan, the world's newest nation, "will face chronic food shortages next year due to internal and border insecurity, erratic rains and a huge influx of returnees from the North," IRIN reports. "U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Lise Grande said more than three million people (36 percent of the population) in South Sudan were classed as moderately or severely food insecure in 2011, and the burden was increasing," IRIN writes (9/27).

In related news, South Sudan on Tuesday became the 194th member of the WHO after accepting its constitution at the U.N.'s annual event aimed at encouraging member states to sign, ratify or accede international treaties, conventions and pacts, the U.N. News Centre reports (9/27).