By Bisola Adeyemo
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, moves to assist South Sudanese affected and hit by worst flood in decades.
Heavy rain has destroyed millions of properties including farm crops and animals rendered many people homeless, forcing families to seek safety on higher ground or in neighbouring towns.
Weeks of heavy rain have caused unrelenting floods, affecting more than 700,000 people across the country, UNHCR Representative in the country Arafat Jamal said on Tuesday.
Mr. Jamal said UNHCR teams in Upper Nile State alone, met around 1,000 people who had walked for seven days to reach Malakal, the state capital.
“Women, children, and elderly people arrived exhausted and hungry,” he told journalists at the weekly UN humanitarian briefing in Geneva.
The floods have primarily affected four States. “In some areas, communities have not seen flooding to this extent since 1962,” said Mr. Jamal, who is also the interim UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the country. Meanwhile, other areas have seen three years of consecutive flooding.
Mr. Jamal said although the effects of the climate emergency are being felt on every continent, and in every region, East Africa has been profoundly affected.
