david shearer, welcome to hardtalk. thank you.o you think the world is paying heed to the agonies and suffering of the people of south sudan? i think increasingly so, but there is a competition, obviously, for airtime in terms of disasters around the world. south sudan sometimes, despite the enormous amount of tragedy, sometimes falls off the stage. right now, there are more than half the population of south sudan in need of food aid. one third of the country is displaced, either in other countries or internally displaced. and the conflict continues on. and this is not a disaster that is borne out of drought. it is a disaster that is borne out of conflict. it is man—made. it is a man—made catastrophe. the un agency responsible for food and agriculture has talked about famine. a word which is always used with great care. is it justified in south sudan today? they did careful analysis of the situation in south sudan and declared one particular area, a number of counties, in a famine zone. they believe 100,000 people in the area were