NYAL, South Sudan (AP) - Top U.N. officials say many desperate South Sudan residents fleeing fighting across the country are eating grass and roots to survive.
The World Food Program is dropping food from airplanes to the hungry, but warned that transporting food by plane is too costly to continue.
The WFP's top official, executive director Ertharin Cousin, visited Nyal in Unity state on Tuesday before heading Wednesday to the Ethiopian border town of Gambela, which is overwhelmed by nearly 70,000 South Sudanese escaping the fighting.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, who also travelled to Nyal, said one family told him they had been eating roots, which must be boiled for days to remove poisons, because they have no other food. Guterres said the international community has a moral responsibility to act.
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