More Than 4 Million People Displaced by Conflict in South Sudan: UNICEF

More than 4 million people have been displaced by the five year-long conflict in South Sudan, with 15,000 children still missing or separated from their families, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Fifteen thousand children remain separated from their families or missing, five years after conflict first broke out in South Sudan. More than four million people have been uprooted by the fighting, the majority of them children," the statement said.

UNICEF noted that since the conflict began, the fund along with its partners have reunited some 6,000 children with their parents or caregivers.

"Separated and unaccompanied children are more susceptible to violence, abuse and exploitation, which makes returning them to their parents an urgent priority," the release added.

"Even once reunited, many families continue to need support. Half of the reunited children - some 3,000 - are still receiving assistance from case-workers, putting the total number of children in need of support at 18,000."

The fund is currently appealing for $179 million to continue providing humanitarian assistance to children for the next year.

"Still, five years of violence and insecurity have taken a devastating toll on children in South Sudan. An estimated 1.2 million children are acutely malnourished - the highest number since the conflict began," UNICEF said. "Some 2.2 million children are not receiving an education, giving South Sudan the highest proportion of out of school children in the world."

South Sudan broke away from Sudan after a referendum in 2011. In 2013, a civil war erupted in the country, as South Sudan's President Salva Kiir of the Dinka tribe accused rebel leader Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer, of planning a coup.