The United Nations World Food Programme has begun a series of emergency airdrops to deliver food to remote parts of South Sudan’s Upper Nile State after months of fighting cut off ground and river access. The operation, launched on 7 July, marks the agency’s first entry in more than four months into Nasir and Ulang counties and aims to supply life-saving rations to more than 40,000 people who can currently be reached only by air. Armed clashes that reignited in March have blocked key river corridors, tripling the number of people enduring catastrophic hunger. UN figures show that over one million residents of Upper Nile now face acute food insecurity, including about 32,000 already at IPC Phase 5—the most severe level—while 7.7 million people, or 57 percent of the national population, are in crisis, emergency or catastrophic phases country-wide. WFP says it needs $274 million to sustain relief operations through December and warns that famine could take hold if aid levels do not rise quickly. The agency plans to reach 470,000 people across Upper Nile and northern Jonglei during the current lean season, which runs until August, and has 1,500 metric tons of food ready for dispatch once river routes reopen.