Very recently, in which of the following countries have lakhs of people either suffered from severe famine/acute malnutrition or died due to starvation caused by war/ethnic conflicts?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (d) Yemen and South Sudan
In 2017 the UN formally declared famine in parts of South Sudan, where civil war had wrecked food supply, and warned that war-torn Yemen had more than 17 million people facing severe food insecurity. Both crises were driven by armed conflict.
- ✓ (d) Famine was declared in parts of South Sudan's Unity region on 20 February 2017, and in March 2017 the UN counted 2.2 million acutely malnourished children in conflict-ridden Yemen.
- ✗ (c) Venezuela's shortages of food and medicine at the time grew out of an economic collapse rather than a war or ethnic conflict, and neighbouring Colombia saw no famine.
- ✗ (a) Angola's civil war ended in 2002 and Zambia has had no recent war; neither saw conflict-driven famine around 2017.
Remember · 2017: UN declared famine in South Sudan (Leer and Mayendit, Unity region); Yemen called one of the world's worst hunger crises, 17 million food-insecure.
Sources
- Famine declared in region of South Sudan – UN, United Nations Academic Impact (20 February 2017) ↗ “Famine has been formally declared in parts of South Sudan, the United Nations said today, warning that war and a collapsing economy have left some 100,000 people facing starvation there”
- Yemen needs urgent assistance to prevent famine - FAO, WFP, UNICEF (UNICEF press release, 15 March 2017) ↗ “Severe food insecurity threatens more than 17 million people in conflict-ridden Yemen, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis released by the United Nations and humanitarian partners today.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·