UNITED NATIONS, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The UN envoy for South Sudan said Tuesday that the food security in South Sudan remains dire but improvements are taking place.

UN Secretary-General's Special Representative David Shearer said about seven million people in South Sudan are facing crisis or worse.

However, he said, for the first time in years, some counties will see slight improvements where relative calm has enabled households to resume cultivation.

Moreover, he said UN humanitarian partners have reported improved access to areas of need, as their efforts have been assisted by the rehabilitation of 2,500 km of roads by the UN peacekeeping mission's engineering companies and World Food Programme Projects.

"This has enhanced the ability to move food to remote locations in advance of the rains and cut down reliance on expensive airdrops," he said.

Together with opening of river corridors and a reduction in illegal checkpoints around the country, the World Food Programme has reported cost efficiencies of up to 113 million U.S. dollars, he added.

Nevertheless, Shearer cautioned these positive signs come from "a very low base," but "it's a glimmer of what is possible with peace. And it is vital that this trend continues."

South Sudan descended into civil war in late 2013 and the conflict has created one of the fastest growing refugee crises in the world.

The UN estimates that about 4 million South Sudanese have been displaced internally and externally.

A peace deal signed in August 2015 collapsed following renewed violence in the capital Juba in July 2016.

On Sept. 12, 2018, the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan was signed in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, which has led to relative calm in South Sudan.

Under the new deal, opposition leader Riek Machar with four others will once again be reinstated as South Sudanese President Salva Kiir's deputy. Enditem

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