Woman carry sacks of food
© REUTERS/ Siegfried ModolaWoman carry sacks of food in Nimini village, Unity State, northern South Sudan, February 8, 2017
The latest UN figures show that children make up 62 percent of the more than 1.8 million refugees from South Sudan.

"More than one million children have now fled South Sudan where escalating conflict is ravaging the country, UNICEF and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, announced today," the release stated.

More than one million children are also displaced within the country, the release added.

An armed conflict broke out in South Sudan in 2013, a year and a half after the nation gained independence from Sudan, when President Salva Kiir fired Vice President Riek Machar, accusing him of planning a military coup. Hostilities resumed in July 2016 despite a 2015 truce agreement.