South Sudan Suffers from Floods as the International Community Fails to Respond

Critical infrastructure is damaged by flooding in South Sudan. (Flickr)

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released an update on recent flooding in South Sudan on Thursday, October 10, 2024. According to OCHA, floods have impacted 893,000 people in the country as of October, a number up 90 percent from August 30.

This flooding has disproportionately impacted people who are already displaced, further complicating an already precarious humanitarian situation. In South Sudan, about 2.2 million people are internally displaced. Of those individuals, the flooding has affected 241,000.

South Sudan is particularly at risk of flooding because of its geography. It lies in the Nile basin, and water levels in Lake Victoria determine its level of risk to flooding depending upon the year. The soil in the region flooding most affects, Sudd, is mostly silt and clay, so flood waters do not recede except through evaporation of excess moisture. This geography means that the region has always faced flooding, but climate change has worsened the toll.

In response to the large numbers of displaced people from the flooding, some commentators have called South Sudan the first country to be plagued by permanent climate-induced migration. 

To help mitigate the problems, the United Nations Office for Project Services and the South Sudanese government have signed a procurement agreement worth $299,000 for flood response. This will fund a five-year project that will address acute response, risk management, and climate resilience. To many familiar with the situation, this sum is far too small. UNICEF has previously called on the international community to raise $10 million to support children impacted by flooding in Sudan. 

Despite the flooding, 59 percent of the population of South Sudan lacks access to safe and reliable drinking water. Intersectional development problems such as the water crisis make South Sudan’s situation even more difficult to address. Waterborne illnesses become more prevalent among displaced populations and in the aftereffects of flooding. 

Facing these rising challenges, South Sudan needs more support and attention from the international community. However, South Sudan is a difficult environment for journalists and other international advocates in which to work . Foreign journalists struggle to receive accreditation and domestic journalists face high levels of censorship. Given these systemic issues, accurate information and reporting out of South Sudan can be hard to come by, narrowing the scope of international response possible.