Nearly 400,000 ‘excess deaths’ from S. Sudan war

JUBA, South Sudan — South Sudan’s civil war has caused nearly 400,000 “excess deaths” since fighting erupted in late 2013, a new report funded by the U.S. State Department said Wednesday after years of uncertainty.

The report by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine estimates that “violent injuries” caused about half of those 382,900 deaths.

Increased risk of disease and reduced access to health care contributed to others, it said.

The civil war’s death toll has long been unknown, with estimates in the tens of thousands.

“To our knowledge this is the first comprehensive estimate of how many people have died because of the war,” said Francesco Checchi, a lead investigator on the study.

“Every day that goes by, hundreds more lives may be lost,” he added.