GENEVA: South Sudan is likely to return to famine within months, with 155,000 people likely to be in a catastrophic situation between May and July, a survey by a technical working group including South Sudanese and UN officials said on Monday.

The survey said 5.3 million people, 48 percent of the population, were already in "crisis" or "emergency" - stages three and four on a five point scale - and 155,000 could be at stage five, a famine, later this year.