File photo shows a corn leaf nibbled by an armyworm. (Xinhua/Ren Lihua)

by Julius Gale

JUBA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- An outbreak of armyworms was on Friday declared in the southeastern region of South Sudan, which is already struggling with a severe food insecurity for an estimated 6 million people.

Government Spokesman Michael Makuei told reporters that the deadly crop-eating pest has been reported in Imatong and Jubek states.

Makuei called on farmers across the country to be vigilant and report suspected cases to authorities to prevent spread of the armyworms to unaffected regions.

He said the council of ministers has approved nearly 600,000 U.S. dollars to purchase pesticides, adding that the government would be seeking assistance from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) tackle the outbreak.

"The government has approved a sum of 588,000 dollars and it will be used for the protection crops against these armyworms. We urge the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and other UN agencies to come in to ensure that we fight these worms together," Makuie said.

Makuei failed to identify the strain of the reported armyworms, but recently, many countries in Southern and Eastern Africa recorded outbreaks of the fall armyworm, a relatively new pest originating from the Americas, whose presence on the African continent was first reported in Sao Tome and Principe around January 2016.

According to FAO, the fall armyworm can cause extensive crop losses of up to 73 percent depending on existing conditions and is difficult to control with a single type of pesticide, especially when it has reached an advanced larval stage.

The outbreak of the deadly pests in the war-torn country poses another threat of food insecurity after a UN-backed report recently said famine has eased in South Sudan after massive humanitarian response.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) update by the government, the FAO, UN Children's Fund, the World Food Programme, released this week however warned that the situation remains dire across the country as the number of people struggling to get food increased from 4.9 million in February to 6 million, the highest level of food insecurity ever experienced in South Sudan.