South Sudan famine
A malnourished girl holds onto a doll at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in an internally displaced persons camp inside the U.N. base in Malakal, South Sudan, July 24, 2014. Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will provide approximately $180 million on Tuesday to help feed the people of South Sudan, the White House said, citing a risk of famine there.

"The people of South Sudan are suffering because of the inability of South Sudan’s leaders to put their people’s interests above their own," U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice said in a statement.

"President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar must immediately assume their responsibilities to the South Sudanese to prevent further needless suffering."

Sudan