By AFP - Agence France Presse
Floods in South Sudan affect 1.4 million people and displace 379,000: UN
Devastating floods in South Sudan are affecting some 1.4 million people, with more than 379,000 displaced, according to a United Nations update that warned of an increase in malaria.
Aid agencies said the world's youngest country, highly vulnerable to climate change, is suffering the worst flooding in decades, especially in the north.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that around 1.4 million people have been affected by the floods in 43 counties and the disputed Abyei region, claimed by both South Sudan and Sudan.
“More than 379,000 people have been displaced in 22 counties and Abyei,” it added in a statement released Friday evening.
An increase in malaria has been reported in several states; it said, “overburdening the health system and exacerbating the situation and impact in flood-hit areas.”
Since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, the world's youngest nation has been plagued by chronic instability, violence, and economic stagnation, as well as climatic disasters such as droughts and floods.
The World Bank said last month that the latest floods were “worsening an already critical humanitarian situation marked by severe food insecurity, economic decline, ongoing conflict, disease outbreaks and the repercussions of the conflict in Sudan,” which has seen several hundred thousand people arrive in South Sudan.
More than seven million people are food insecure in South Sudan, and 1.65 million children are malnourished, according to the UN World Food Program.
The country is also facing another period of political paralysis after the president's cabinet announced in September a further extension of the transition period agreed in a 2018 peace deal, postponing elections by two years to December 2026.
The main provisions of the transition agreement remain unfulfilled, including the creation of a constitution and the unification of the rival forces of President Salva Kiir and his enemy, Reik Machar.
The delay has left South Sudan's partners and the United Nations exasperated, with UN envoy Nicholas Haysom describing it on Thursday as a “regrettable development.”
All local and international parties involved “must collectively seize the opportunity to make this extension the last and deliver the peace and democracy that the people of South Sudan deserve,” Haysom added.
South Sudan has abundant oil resources, but the vital source of revenue was decimated in February when an export pipeline was damaged in neighboring war-torn Sudan.
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