South Sudan: five things to know

South Sudan, where the government on Monday declared famine in some parts of the country, is mired in an economic crisis due to a devastating civil war. Independent since 2011, the world's newest country was engulfed by civil war in 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his rival and former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup against him. Oil production -- from which South Sudan gained 98 percent of its revenues on its independence five-and-a-half years ago -- has plummeted by more than half and the country is struggling to halt rampant inflation.