UN emergency response agency says almost one million people affected by South Sudan flooding

The United Nations Emergency response agency says nearly one million people have reportedly been affected by flooding in South Sudan, more than doubling estimates earlier released last month as torrential rains wreak havoc on crops and destroy homes.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a briefing note that the world’s newest nation is struggling with four consecutive years of flooding, with the disaster now affecting nine out of ten states.

In its previous update released last month, the UN agency had estimated that around 386,000 people were affected by flooding across seven states.

Four out of five of South Sudan’s 11 million people live in “absolute poverty,” according to World Bank figures for 2018, and nearly two-thirds of its population suffer from severe hunger.

The young country has been enduring a protracted economic and political crisis since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, and it is still working to recover from the effects of a five-year civil war that claimed nearly 400,000 lives.

Despite the ceasefire and power sharing agreement between President Salva Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar in 2018, little progress has been made in implementing the terms.

South Sudan’s leadership has faced fierce criticism from the UN and international community for failing its people and stoking violence, despite its large oil deposits.