**The number of people needing food aid in south Sudan has quadrupled in a year to more than four million, the UN’s World Food Programme says.**A minister said this amounted to about half the total population.
The huge surge has been caused by increasing conflict and drought, the WFP says.
Southern Sudan is slowly recovering from a two-decade civil war with the north, and remains one of the least developed parts of the world.
Last year, some 2,500 died in conflicts between rival communities in Southern Sudan - far more than in Darfur, the UN says.
Tension is escalating in Sudan before elections due in April - the first national multi-party elections in 24 years.