Flooded homestead in Gogrial West. (-)

More than 890,000 people have been affected by flooding in 40 counties across South Sudan leading to massive displacement, loss of livelihoods and destruction of critical infrastructures, the UN humanitarian agency said.

UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that the latest increase is attributed to newly confirmed data of people affected by the disaster in the Abyei Administrative Area, Western Bahr el Ghazal and Lakes states.

OCHA said about 226,000 people have abandoned their homes – out of whom 114,480 were displaced from Unity State alone. “Due to damaged and impassable roads, physical access to affected communities remains a challenge,” the agency said.

In Unity, the state government reported that over 20,000 students have been affected after widespread floods damaged education infrastructures and submerged 65 schools there since May 2024.

In the Abyei Administrative Area, the agency said the disputed region’s 14 counties are affected and reporting displacement of 18,000 people.

President Salva Kiir is expected to declare a national disaster over the floods wrecking havoc across the country after an extraordinary cabinet meeting approved a request for such declaration on 3rd October.

At least 3.3 million people in South Sudan are expected to be affected by the catastrophic floods which is predicted to reach its peak in November this year – exacerbating the already dire humanitarian situation in the country.

In July 2024, the national cabinet approved at least 78 million US dollars to respond to the flooding that was already forecast to affect 3 million people. However, the funds have not been released by the Ministry of Finance and Planning under unclear circumstances.