Irish actor Liam Neeson has warned that children should not have to "fend for themselves" after hundreds of "lifesaving" treatment centres closed in South Sudan.
The actor, 73, known for Taken and Schindler's List, visited South Sudan to see how global funding cuts have impacted local communities and the lives of young people across the country.
The visit comes after nearly 200 nutrition sites have closed as a result of foreign aid cuts. Neeson, who is also a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, said: "I visited the main referral hospital in the capital Juba and was deeply saddened by seeing so many malnourished children.
"They are hauntingly quiet when they should be laughing, sleeping when they should be playing, crying when they should be smiling.
"With treatment sites closing around the country, I ask myself what will happen to those children?"
Neeson added: "The world cannot turn its back on children like those I met in South Sudan.
"Funding cuts are threatening lifesaving programmes for children across the world. Investing in children so they are healthy, safe and learning makes societies stronger, healthier, more stable and peaceful.
"Children shouldn't have to fend for themselves. We either stand with them now or watch their future slip away."
Neeson, who was last seen in The Naked Gun reboot alongside Pamela Anderson, said the experience was "joyful".
He leads the film as Frank Drebin Jr, the bumbling, coffee-chugging leader of Police Squad and the son of late comedy legend Leslie Nielsen's detective from the original trio of films, while Anderson plays femme fatale Beth Davenport, who becomes involved with Frank Drebin Jr when he begins investigating her brother's mysterious death.
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Source: Press Association
