Uncertain Land: Climate Change and the Internally Displaced People of South Sudan

A young girl walks along the apex of a dyke separating flood water from the road. Roads are often too muddy to walk on, causing people use the apex of the dykes as pathways.

According to Joshua Kanyara, IOM Emergency Coordinator, dry land in Bentiu owes its existence to humanitarian-built dykes and roads. In August 2022, flooding spanned 80km and the dykes, constructed by aid organisations, are approximately 2.5 metres high and up to 5 metres wide. The IDP camp in Bentiu houses in excess of 112,000 people displaced due to flooding or conflict.

Bentiu, South Sudan 21/08/2022

Homes have been flooded in Bentiu for over four years and are predicted to drain slowly over the next six years. A man wades with a net to catch fish in the floodwaters around Bentiu.

Bentiu, South Sudan 21/08/2022

The flooded landscape of Bentiu as viewed from above.

Bentiu, South Sudan 21/08/2022

Torrential rains have impacted the runaway at the local airport.

Several cargo planes can be seen littered around the airstrip, having landed upon slippery mud and crashed. Roads are often too muddy to walk on, causing people use the apex of the dykes as pathways.

Goat herders from the IDP camp in Abyei walk home in the evening rainstorm. 26/08/2022 Abyei, South Sudan.

Seven-teen year old Kamundi Makieu Pingiel has been bitten by a soldier snake. The snake bit him while he was asleep in his makeshift tent and managed to bite him through his mosquito net. He was able to kill the snake for anti-venom identification. He had to walk a day to get to the hospital and the venom had reached from the bite on his hand to the top part of his arm. Should the venom manage to travel to the brain the bite would be lethal. Anti-venom treatment was administered shortly after triage.

Seven-year-old Hoth Kuol Juol became ill with Malaria when he was two years old. He continues to suffer multiple seizures, is left with severe disability and no longer recognizes his family. A month prior to this photograph, Hoth suffered a burn on his arm after falling into the cooking fire during a seizure. The burn remained untreated, as his village in Myom was attacked, causing him and his family to flee to Agok. Once there, MSF nurse and medical logistics officer Marteen offered to bring them to the hospital in Abyei - over 2 hours away. Both mother and son suffered severe car sickness throughout the very rough trip and both were already malnourished. Hoth has lost the use of his hand due to the burn. Agok to Abyei, South Sudan 25/08/2022

A woman enters her makeshift shelter in the IDP camp in Abyei after walking home in the evening rainstorm.

Residents of the Abyei IDP camp want better living conditions – their homes continue to flood daily. 27/08/2022 Abyei, South Sudan.

Mary Nyantey is 40 years old. When her village flooded and she was forced to flee, she could not carry her children through the floodwaters. Instead, she tied her children inside a sack made from a large plastic tarp (previously used to cover her home) and swam them to safety, dragging the floating sack of children behind her. While now safe from the floodwaters, she and her family have no regular access to food and are forced to collect a plant called ‘Yell’ from a nearby river to eat.

Mary shows the seeds from the fruit of ‘Yell’ in the foreground. This is what she and her family are surviving on in one of Bentiu's IDP camps, Bentiu, South Sudan,

A boy by a small area of crops in Canal Village in Jonglei state, South Sudan.

When the worst flooding in more than 50 years engulfed communities along the River Nile in South Sudan last year, thousands of people fled to higher ground, seeking refuge in an old army barracks.

Known as Canal Village, it had been a strategic military position decades ago in northern Jonglei state, with the city of Malakal further along the Nile. But its new residents discovered, to their dismay, that within its confines lay an old minefield.

11/08/2022 - Canal Villiage, Malakal, Upper Niles State, South Sudan.

"Early this year, UNMAS responded to community requests from a remote village in Canal where IDPs had resettled on a known minefield. In March 2022, following on from several Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) sessions delivered by UNMAS, Chief of Mine Action, Mr. Fran O’Grady, visited Canal to assess how clearance activities could be undertaken, in what was a race against time to get mechanical demining machinery on a barge to the site before the onset of the wet season. Thankfully, this was achieved through solid team effort that resulted in the disposal of more than 25 anti-personnel mines and the clearance of over 17,000 sqm of land, making it safe for the estimated 1,500 people to settle and undertake agricultural activities, as well as for safe access for humanitarian response." - Fran O'Grady UNMAS

A cattle herder walks his cattle to Bentiu town, through floodwaters.

Bentiu, South Sudan 21/08/2022

The flooded landscape of Bentiu as viewed from above.

Bentiu, South Sudan 21/08/2022

Uncertain Land: Climate Change and the Internally Displaced People of South Sudan

Catastrophic flooding, driven by the earth’s changing climate, ravages South Sudan. The fledgling nation has endured torrential rainfall events for five consecutive years, which has inundated two-thirds of the country.

Since the escalation of conflict in 2013 and 2014, South Sudan has faced a significant rise in the number of Internally Displaced People (IDPs). Over the past six years, this number has continued to grow due to the climate crisis and extreme flooding in areas where people had resettled or were still displaced from the 2014 conflict. Many of these individuals could not return to their original villages for various reasons, including destruction of homes, looted properties, fear of further violence, or illness.

Villages, grazing land and livestock have been destroyed, and inhabitants have fled their homes and livelihoods, intensifying the humanitarian crisis that continues after years of war. UNOCHA estimates that 2 million inhabitants are currently internally displaced due to flooding. The capital of the province of Unity State, Bentiu, is one of the worst affected areas. Home to the severely overcrowded Bentiu IDP camp, the town and surrounding regions have been isolated by floodwaters. The region is now an island.

The mass internal displacement of people has led to increased food insecurity as arable land and grazing space contracts. The physical isolation of inhabited regions means that supplies can’t reach their intended destinations. Limited space and scarcity of resources – particularly in regional areas – lead to conflict, further exacerbating despair. Malnutrition, particularly among young children and pregnant and lactating women, is an increasing concern. UNOCHA estimates that 1.7 million children under the age of 5 and 870,000 pregnant and lactating women are at risk of acute malnourishment.

Vector-borne diseases, such as Malaria, and water-borne illnesses causing acute diarrhea are increasing. Flood waters are driving snakes into congested areas, resulting in more contact with humans and, in turn, incidents of bites.

Displacement has only increased after the war broke out again last year—many Sudanese fled to South Sudan for refuge, aggravating already strained infrastructures.

Globally, funding for humanitarian causes is stretched. Demands for assistance in other countries enduring conflict have seen resources being directed away from South Sudan. UNOCHA reports that only 20% of the required funding for aid in South Sudan for 2024 has been secured. International aid organisations and the United Nations are appealing to the international community for more funds and greater participation in the recovery effort by the South Sudanese government.

The existence and continued threat of violent conflict compound an already fraught situation in which access to flood-affected areas and resourcing constraints present daily challenges. These images depict the situation in South Sudan in August and September 2022.

As seen in the BBC News Online

Christina Simons© 2024
As world events change, the statistics and circumstances written here may no longer reflect the present situation.