Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, has called for the scale-up of humanitarian response in South Sudan as the country continues to grapple with severe flooding.

According to MSF, humanitarian response needs to be scaled up urgently to ensure people who remain in extremely precarious conditions have access to basic essentials, including food, health care and shelter.

While many countries in East Africa suffer the worst drought in four decades, South Sudan sits uneasily on the opposite end of the spectrum – saturated by years of intense flooding that has affected more than one million people in the country.

Four consecutive years of flooding have left about two-thirds of the country under water, with Jonglei, Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Upper Nile, Unity, Warrap, Western Equatoria, and Lakes States in South Sudan and Abyei Special Administrative Area, all experiencing severe floods in the past few months.

As much as 75 percent of people in South Sudan are said to be in need of food assistance, according to estimates from the World Food Programme (WFP).

‘Flooding impacts our capacity to deliver aid and reach communities in need’, MSF Head of Mission in South Sudan, Aline Serin, said.

‘Many roads across the country are rendered impassable by the flooding. In a number of locations where we operate, our planes have been unable to land due to flooding of the airstrips.

‘This lack of access inhibits our ability to bring in medical supplies and other essential items, which puts lives at risk. It also impacts our ability to transfer patients who require emergency treatment’.

With the majority of people in South Sudan being pastoralists, there is also an increased risk of cattle raids to regain animals lost during the floods, leading to flare-ups of inter-communal violence.

Source: MSF

Photo source: MSF