Victims: Children stand among the rooftops of homes after the Yusuf Batir refugee camp in South Sudan was hit by flooding (AFP Photo/Alex McBride)
Bunj (South Sudan) (AFP) - Visibly exhausted, Ali Fonj sets to chopping wooden poles to make a shelter for his wife and four children after their ramshackle home was swept away in raging floodwaters in South Sudan.
Fonj, 45, is one of around 150,000 refugees from Sudan's troubled Blue Nile region who had fled to Maban, in neighbouring northeastern South Sudan.
Their precarious lives have now received a second blow -- the region's worst floods in a generation.
Fierce rains across East Africa have had deadly consequences in Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia. The UN refugee agency UNHCR says nearly a million people have been affected in South Sudan.
In Maban, the floodwaters are slowly receding but submerged homes and damaged crops bear testament to the devastation.
"When the water came, I took all my children and sought refuge at a nearby school," a dejected Fonj told AFP.
The family were told to leave when classes resumed.
"We are trying to build shelters and we can cover them using the plastic sheets distributed to us by the UNHCR until the water dries up, so we can then be able to go out and get some thatch to build a better shelter for our children to stay in."
- Worst floods in decades -
Fonj lives in one of four refugee camps in Maban, housing people who fled violence in the Blue Nile region where fighters continued their campaign against Khartoum after being excluded from an independent South Sudan in 2011.
A host community of around 50,000 people in Maban have also been badly hit by the floods, which the UNHCR says has left six dead locally.
"They have never seen this magnitude of floods since 1984," a senior UNHCR official in Maban, Malar Maharajah Smith, told AFP.
The refugee agency estimates that across the country, which was already facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises due to over five years of war, some 600,000 people are in need of immediate assistance.
Floodwaters also destroyed latrines and contaminated sources of drinking water, raising fears of waterborne diseases.
According to the UN, some $61 million (55 million euros) is needed to respond to the aftermath.
- No firewood -
Another camp resident, Mukbulah Saleh, 25, clasps her shoes in one hand and a saucepan containing food items in another as she wades through floodwaters.
"We have nothing to use to cook the little food I got because it is still not safe for us to go to the bush to collect firewood since there is still water all over," she said.
Some flood victims are waking up at dawn, armed with mosquito nets, spears and sticks, to try and catch the unexpected bounty of fish that have shown up in floodwaters.
"This flood came to kill us but God was in our favour, it brought for us fish instead," said Mabanese resident Abdul Gasim Dafala, holding up his catch.
Newer articles:
- HIV campaign tackles sex taboos in S.Sudan - 30/11/2019 09:52
- UN reports accuse Abiy Ahmed of fanning instability in Somalia, S. Sudan - 30/11/2019 08:41
- Sudan’s Tarco Aviation Eyes West African Pilgrim Traffic - 29/11/2019 19:18
- South Sudan army general dismissed over treason charges - 29/11/2019 16:00
- IGAD urges lifting of sanctions on Sudan and South Sudan - 29/11/2019 12:17
Older news items
- South Sudan: Emergency appeal n° MDRSS009 - 28/11/2019 08:34
- ‘We are all traumatised’: an interview with South Sudan’s senior churchman - 28/11/2019 06:22
- Sudan and South Sudan extend oil exporting deal to 2022 - 28/11/2019 05:16
- South Sudan: Free Arbitrarily Detained Journalist - 28/11/2019 04:54
- South Sudan to restore reliable electricity supply to Juba’s central business district - 28/11/2019 02:12
Latest news items (all categories):
- South Sudan needs ‘civic education’ before elections, says bishop - 16/01/2025 16:42
- South Sudan parties set to resume peace talks in Kenya - 16/01/2025 16:39
- Abandoned but not forgotten – the invisible crisis in South Sudan - 16/01/2025 16:35
- The SAF has committed barbaric atrocities against South Sudanese refugees in Wad Medani - 16/01/2025 16:27
- Syria 2025: The historical Syrian project: From revolution to a modern inclusive civil state - 16/01/2025 16:10
Random articles (all categories):
- South Sudan says UN's Lanzer Expelled for Comment on Economy - 02/06/2015 15:30
- South Sudan rebels dismiss massacres - 26/04/2014 09:46
- Lafon County officials decry shortage of qualified teachers - 19/10/2023 06:09
- Analysis - Ethiopian dam dispute: How Tel Aviv fishing in troubled Nile waters? - 24/07/2021 04:27
- Salva Kiir Mourns Death of South Sudanese Freedom Fighter Aguil Chut-Deng - 03/05/2022 12:37
Popular articles:
- Who is the darkest person in the world, according to Guinness World Record? - 25/10/2022 02:34 - Read 61624 times
- No oil in troubled waters - 25/03/2014 15:02 - Read 22305 times
- School exam results in South Sudan show decline - 01/04/2012 17:58 - Read 21491 times
- NDSU student from South Sudan receives scholarship - In-Forum - 29/09/2012 01:44 - Read 19058 times
- Top 10 weakest currency exchange rates in Africa in 2023 - 19/07/2023 00:24 - Read 18785 times