UNICEF: S. Sudan Children in Dire Need of Help

FILE - Children are seen at a U.N.-run internally displaced persons camp in Juba, South Sudan, May 6, 2014.

The International child welfare agency UNICEF is warning that hundreds of thousands of children in South Sudan are at imminent risk of disease and death.

On the eve of a humanitarian pledging conference in Norway, UNICEF said on Sunday that 80 percent of the children under the age of five in South Sudan's three worst conflict-affected states - Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity - are in grave danger. It said nearly 50,000 children across the country could die of malnutrition, and that nearly 740,000 are at high risk of food insecurity.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that by the end of this year, half of South Sudan’s 12 million people will be either in flight, facing starvation or dead. At least half of these are children.

UNICEF is seeking $111 million to deal with the crisis facing women and children in South Sudan this year.