Nov 20, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — The continued flooding in South Sudan has displaced more than one million people since July according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
According to a report released on Thursday, Jonglei state is the worst hit state with more than four hundred thousand affected persons.
“An estimated 1,034,000 people have been affected by floods since July. Jonglei State is the worst affected (404,000 people),” read a report, released by OCHA South Sudan on behalf of the Inter-Cluster Coordination Group, which covers the period from July 1 to Nov. 17.
The report further said that an estimated 481,000 of the affected people have been totally displaced from their homes.
The floods have been caused by heavy rains which have been experienced in the area since July and have left widespread crop and property damage in the affected regions.
“Abnormally heavy rainfall from July to date has led to overflows of the rivers Nile, Pibor, Sobat, Lol and other rivers as well as inland flooding, mainly in the eastern and central parts of South Sudan,” the report added.
According to the report, the affected people are in urgent need of food, livelihood support, emergency shelter as well as non-food items (ES/NFI), water, sanitation and hygiene, health and protection services.
The report further says that flood response activities are considerably constrained by persistent heavy rains, infrastructure damage and reduced physical accessibility (e.g., impassable roads, flooded airstrips), insecurity and limited resources.
The report says there is an urgent need for additional logistic support with air assets and riverine transport to move cargo to priority locations.
It further claimed that the COVID-19 emergency response has depleted ES/NFI and WASH core pipeline stocks.