UN experts: 100,000 starve while South Sudan buys weapons

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, left, takes members of the UN Security Council, including U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, right, on a tour outside the presidential compound in the capital Juba, South Sudan. (AP)

UNITED NATIONS: U.N. experts say in a new report that South Sudan's government is spending at least half its budget on security and weapons while 100,000 people are dying of starvation as a result of famine caused mainly by an upsurge in government military operations.
The experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against the world's newest nation said another 1 million people are near starvation and the number of people desperately needing food is expected to rise to 5.5 million people in the "lean season in July ... if nothing is done to curb the severity and breadth of the food crisis."
The panel of experts called on council members to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan in the report to the Security Council obtained Friday by The Associated Press.