Video: Responding to severe flooding in South Sudan

More than one million people have been affected by flooding in South Sudan this year, according to the United Nations. In Fangak county, located in the middle of the vast Sudd wetland, floodwaters began engulfing people's homes and farms in July, and in some places, the waters continue to rise. In late September, more than 3,000 people there were displaced from their homes by the flooding.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams distributed blankets, plastic sheeting, and other essential items and are continuing to provide medical care to displaced people and residents of the community.

“This year, water reached places that weren’t flooded last year,” says Nyabuok Lony Ruot, the relative of a patient at the MSF hospital in Old Fangak town. “All the crops are in the water. We came to the hospital by canoe.” A lack of roads in Fangak county means that most people travel by foot or by boat. In some places, the high waters make walking for medical care impossible and most people cannot afford to pay for a canoe, so MSF is using its boat as an ambulance.