[Juba, South Sudan, TCT, Francis Mading] President Salva Kiir Mayardit has declared a state of emergency in areas affected by floods in three regions of the country as rains continue pounding.
[Juba, South Sudan, TCT, Francis Mading] President Salva Kiir Mayardit has declared a state of emergency in areas affected by floods in three regions of the country as rains continue pounding.
The regions greatly affected include Upper Nile, Greater Jonglei and Greater Bahr El Ghazal. The declaration of emergency also includes Maban, Longchuk, Mayott, Ulang, Nasir, Pangak, Ayot, Fiji, Akobo, Wat, Nyirol, Oureur, Dok, Twic East and Bor beside Puma State Greater Upper Nile region.
In the Greater Bahr El Ghazal region, emergency was declared in the regions of Lol, East Oil, Western Oil, Gogrial, Twij and Tong Abyei.
The emergency covers many counties in the regions of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile and Equatoria.
Although it did not mention measures to be taken to help those affected by the floods, the Presidency urged the government and humanitarian organizations to help the affected.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said last Friday that about one million people in South Sudan were affected by heavy flooding.
Severe floods have devastated large areas of the country since July, displacing entire communities and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, he said.
Some 908,000 people are reported to have been affected, including IDPs, refugees and their host communities.
Alan Nodho, humanitarian coordinator at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in South Sudan, said the situation was "extremely worrying" as the rains were likely to last another four to six weeks and put more people at risk.
The agency said the floods had limited access to health facilities, nutrition centers, basic services and markets.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than three million people were in need of humanitarian assistance even before the rains in various states including Jonglei, Upper Nile, Warrap, Eastern Equatoria, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Unity and Lakes.
He said many of the affected areas were already facing high humanitarian needs before the flood began, with more than 60% of them classified as severely malnourished.
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