The release of a comprehensive report on South Sudan's hunger situation has been delayed until next week.

The report of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification System (IPC), which surveys food security and can be used to declare the existence of a famine, was scheduled to be released Saturday by the government of South Sudan. The report will instead be released next week.

The last IPC report for South Sudan came out in May. That report predicted 4.6 million people, or about 40% of South Sudan's population, would face crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity this year.

Crisis and emergency are the two levels below catastrophe, or famine.

A famine is declared when a population has more than 2 people dying per 10,000 every day, along with a global acute malnutrition rate of more than 30%, and more than 20% of the population facing a food consumption gap, according to the IPC.

Photo: IPC ratings (September 2014)