麻豆约拍

The haunting pictures have returned.聽 Every few years, it seems, we鈥檙e confronted with emaciated men and women, and skeletal children.聽聽 Now the United Nations has declared famine in South Sudan, with 100,000 people at risk of dying of starvation, and at least 5 million in need of assistance.聽 Several other African nations face the same threat.

Roy Jenkins asks what constitutes famine.聽 Can it be prevented, or is there a certain inevitability about it?聽 And we look at just what鈥檚 happening in South Sudan, the world鈥檚 newest nation.聽 It鈥檚 a fertile land, with vast untapped natural resources; but it鈥檚 also racked by civil war and a collapsing economy. What help are its people getting?聽 And in a country which is overwhelmingly Christian, what are the churches doing?

Taking part:
Anglican Bishop Samuel Peni by phone from Kampala in neighbouring Uganda where he has been forced into exile;
Greg Barrow, Head of the UN World Food Programme鈥檚 London Office;
Fergus Conmee, Head of Africa for the Catholic Relief Agency, CAFOD;
And Dr. Richard Byrne, a Food Security specialist at Harper-Adams University in Shropshire.

Photo with permission聽Fergus Conmee/CAFOD