Update on “heart breaking” flood situation in Jonglei State, South Sudan

Despite community efforts to build flood defences to protect people in Panyagor Town – the situation has become unbearable.

Over the past five months, Jonglei has continued to witness unprecedented flooding – the worst in decades. By August 2020, all the people living in villages in Twic East in Jonglei – one of the regions hardest hit by flooding – had been displaced. The majority of people left for Bor and Juba but a few stayed and sought shelter in Panyagor Town.

With support from Saferworld’s partner Church and Development, young people constructed a dyke on 12 August around Panyagor to stop water flooding onto the town and further displacing people, including those who had previously been displaced into Panyagor from surrounding areas.

Sadly, despite these efforts, the latest surge of water has caused further displacement and made peoples’ lives and the delivery of essential services impossible. Aid workers have had to evacuate their staff to either Bor or Juba as people’s homes, NGO compounds, airstrips, local markets and government buildings are all submerged.

‘’It’s heartbreaking seeing the sick in hospital wards completely under water’’ said Mading William, Protection and Peacebuilding Officer.

‘’Together with our donors, Church and Development stands with and sends a message of solidarity to the people of Twic East and Jonglei at large who have borne the brunt of this merciless flooding’’ said John Bullen, Executive Director for Church and Development. ‘’People have lost their homes and livelihoods to the harshest of natural calamities we have ever witnessed in our land”.

John appealed to all well-wishers – including the donor community, aid agencies, the government and the people of South Sudan – to help people displaced by flood in Jonglei State – the majority of whom are currently displaced in camps in Mangalla (Central Equatoria), Bor and Mingkaman (Lakes State). Church and Development also urges the government at the state and national levels to devise long-term plans to renovate the primary dykes along the River Nile to protect communities from experiencing further flooding in future.  

Read about how young people have responded to the flooding in Jonglei in South Sudan.

Read more about our work in South Sudan.