Nearly one million children under the age of five across South Sudan suffer from malnutrition, a health official said.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday, the Director of Nutrition at the Ministry of Health, Rebecca Alom William, said preliminary reports on the health situation in the country found that children and women are suffering from malnutrition.

“We have estimated nearly one million children across South Sudan are malnourished including some mothers also,” she said.

William attributed the high cases to violence. “In any situation where people are not stable, fleeing violence and there is no proper feeding, there is increment of such cases. When people don’t access health facilities and there is no access to pure drinking water, there is a high possibility of malnutrition,” she added.

The official stated that the country’s major hospitals have been overwhelmed by cases of malnutrition including Juba Teaching Hospital.