BENTIU, SOUTH SUDAN, 27 OCTOBER 2023: UNMISS buldozer mends broken parts of a dyke fortifying Bentiu POC in Unity State. (Photo: Gregório Cunha/UNMISS

A Senior Political Officer of the African Union is calling on the South Sudan government to urgently make provisions on environmental security amid the threats of climate change, as the country embarks on reforming its security sector.

South Sudan is ranked as the second most vulnerable country globally to the impacts of natural hazards, including droughts and flooding.

The country is also among top five other nations most vulnerable to the impact of climate change, according to the 2023 INFORM Risk Index.

Since May 2024, floods have affected more than 1.4 million people across South Sudan, with livelihoods including farmlands and livestock wiped out, and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes, according to the UN humanitarian agency.

AU diplomat, Prosper N. Addo said the consequences of climate security risks are harmfully impacting the lives and properties of South Sudanese.

He applauded the current efforts towards reforming the security sector and urges the government not to lose sight of environmental security.

Addo has urged the national and international partners to support South Sudan in its quest in security transformation to improve the lives of south Sudanese.

“In an era of climate change, let us not lose sight of making provisions for environmental security. As clearly, climate security risks pose major threat and have major consequences on the lives and property of this country,” he said during the closing session of a security sector reform conference in Juba.

In December 2023, President Salva Kiir said climate change factors have negatively affected peace and security in South Sudan while addressing the UN Climate Change conference in the United Arab Emirates.

Kiir told over a hundred world leaders gathered in Dubai, that his underdeveloped country, which accounts for little to no carbon emission, is bearing the brunt of climate disasters.

He said four years of floods and droughts that have affected swathes of territories in South Sudan’s north and east, have wiped out livelihoods and forced communities to fight over scarce resource.

Environmentalists say South Sudan experienced environmental damage, deforestation, soil and water contamination, and health issues in and around the oil-producing areas.

The civil war that started in 2013 – just two years after independence was seen to have prevented the proper management of the environment and the Ministry of Petroleum and oil companies came under increased criticism in the past over oil leakages.

Both local and international campaign groups have reported widespread environmental pollution, as chemicals from oil wells are said to have been washed to settlements by floodwaters, leaving animals and people affected.

Reports emerged of women giving birth to deformed babies and stillbirths, and were subsequently confirmed by indigenous community.