Floods misery deepens across South Sudan

Floods resulting from heavy rains in parts of South Sudan have caused deaths and displaced tens of thousands, with homes and farms inundated.

Heavy rains and severe flooding last week in Maban county have also damaged camps for refugees and internally displaced persons, according to religious organization Jesuit Refugee Service.

The floods destroyed schools, roads and housing, leaving many people in search of dry ground. "Extensive infrastructural damage to bridges and roads has prevented humanitarian access to communities whose livelihoods and day-to-day survival is primarily dependent on humanitarian assistance," the organization said.

Damage to livelihood assets, food crops and livestock has also diminished the communities' ability to effectively start recovery.

About 90,000 people have been affected by flooding as unrelenting rains inundate homes and agricultural fields, and push people and their livestock to higher grounds.

Most of those affected are in the counties of Ayod and Canal in Jonglei state, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said in a statement.

Many of the residents said they were experiencing flooding for the second time since May.

"Intense and unrelenting for two years, the flooding is seriously degrading the ability of the people to cope and survive. Tens of thousands of people have been impacted," said Arafat Jamal, acting humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, in a statement on Friday.

Jamal said the situation in Ayod was a distressing example of how changing climate disrupts the normal patterns and intensifies the effects of flooding, leaving people disoriented and dispossessed.

Acute needs

"The people we met in Ayod and Canal faced acute humanitarian needs, yet their thoughts were directed to their brethren across the river, marooned on islands surrounded by water, sheltering under trees and unable to cross to safety," he said.

On Wednesday, interagency Camp Coordination and Camp Management reported that floods in southern Mayendit county had displaced 2,400 people and killed seven in July.

The OCHA said some 30,000 people in at least six locations in Ayod were affected by flooding. In Fangak county of Jonglei alone, 18,000 people were affected by flooding between May and July.

The UN agency said floods also affected more than 37,000 people in communities across Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Unity, Upper Nile and Warrap states.

Agencies contributed to this story.