Hollywood actor Liam Neeson has spoken out with rare fury after witnessing the devastation in South Sudan, calling the world’s aid cuts “a betrayal of humanity.”
During his six-day visit as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, the Taken star met mothers clutching their malnourished children and described the haunting silence of those too weak to cry. “I was deeply saddened by seeing so many malnourished children,” Neeson said. “They are hauntingly quiet when they should be laughing, sleeping when they should be playing, crying when they should be smiling.”
An estimated 2.3 million children in the war-ravaged nation are on the brink of severe malnutrition, with nearly half at risk of death without urgent treatment. Yet international funding cuts have forced the closure of 186 nutrition treatment sites, leaving countless families without food or medical help.
“With treatment sites closing around the country, I ask myself what will happen to those children?” Neeson said. “Funding cuts are threatening lifesaving programmes for children across the world. We either stand with them now or watch their future slip away.”
The ongoing civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has claimed over 150,000 lives and displaced 12 million people. Earlier this year, U.S. officials declared genocide in Darfur, accusing the RSF of systematically killing and raping civilians from non-Arab ethnic groups.
Neeson’s plea comes as UNICEF faces a 20% funding drop over the next four years, with only five social workers available for every 100,000 children in the country. His visit has reignited global concern about the forgotten crisis — and the human cost of political indifference.
