Giving Compass' Take:

• News Deeply explores the violence in South Sudan and how it's exacerbating the country's hunger crisis in a season when supplies are especially low.

• With cease-fire declarations being violated, aid groups are having a difficult time getting food to those who need it the most. Policymakers and NGOs should look at how to push pressure on the local government to do more.

• For more on what conditions are like on the ground, check out this diary of a South Sudanese aid worker.

Recently, a new cease-fire came into effect in South Sudan. But within hours it had been violated — terrible news for millions of South Sudanese in the midst of their “lean season”, when food stocks are low and heavy rains can arrive suddenly, washing out roads and links to lifesaving assistance. July marks the peak of the hunger gap, when harvests are depleted just as new crops are planted. Without food distributed by aid groups, an estimated 7.1 million people — more than half the population — would go hungry. Continued conflict makes humanitarian access to many areas extremely difficult, as well as being deadly and disruptive for civilians.

“The conflict must end,” World Food Programme Country Representative Adnan Khan told IRIN. “It’s one of the main causes of hunger in South Sudan today, forcing millions of people to abandon their land, homes, and jobs, putting them at risk of hunger. We need both peace and sustained [humanitarian] access to succeed.”

The civil war, now in its fifth year, has claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced more than four million people — either to other parts of South Sudan or to neighboring countries — and, along with poor governance, done untold damage to the oil-rich country’s economy.

On 27 June, President Salva Kiir and his rival Riek Machar agreed that a “permanent” cease-fire would come into effect within 72 hours, and that humanitarian corridors would be opened up.

But, like numerous previous cease-fires, it was violated almost before the ink dried. The latest agreement builds on a flawed 2015 peace accord that has done nothing to end the conflict, and many analysts believe it is also destined to fail.

Read the full article about violence and famine in South Sudan by Stefanie Glinski at News Deeply.