Israel provides food aid to South Sudan

Israel has provided food aid to residents of a village in a drought-stricken area of South Sudan, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

The six tons of food aid were distributed to village residents by government officials, representatives from Israeli humanitarian groups and Israel’s Ambassador to South Sudan Hanan Goder.

The aid was coordinated by the ministry’s Agency for International Development Cooperation and the Israeli embassy in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, the Foreign Ministry said.

The drought has hit the war-wracked young nation hard, with millions feared susceptible to famine.

South Sudan’s civil war erupted in December 2013 just two years after it obtained independence from Sudan, when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup.

In addition to its humanitarian aid, Israel has been accused of serving as a top supplier of weapons to the South Sudanese government in the ongoing civil war, after Juba opened diplomatic relations with Jerusalem soon after declaring independence in 2011.

Thousands have been killed and some four million displaced in the civil war, according to UN figures.

The fighting has further exacerbated the already precarious humanitarian situation in the country,

Agencies contributed to this report.