More than 3,000 people in Imatong have fled the area in the last few days to refugee camps in the neighboring Uganda and Kenya due to hunger, according to the state governor.

Nartisio Loluke says several people also starved to death since food shortage hit the area in November last year.

Last week, the World Food Program distributed food in the state after the government made an appeal for assistance to the vulnerable people.

Mr Loluke says this was so little and people are now surviving on wild fruits and leaves in an area called Lowodo.

“People are sleeping under trees so that they will collect any coconut which falls down at night,” he told Eye Radio.

Mr Loluke says the hunger in the state has been caused by the worsening economic situation in the country.