South Sudan flooding. B-ROLL.

Monday, December 6, 2021 — People in Bentiu in northern South Sudan are facing outbreaks of infectious and waterborne diseases, increased food insecurity and malnutrition due to some of the most severe floods in decades. A failure from humanitarian organisations and authorities to scale up quickly enough in response has left at least 152,000 displaced people in horrific living conditions.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calls on other humanitarian organisations in Bentiu, as well as the United Nations, the Ministry of Health and the government of South Sudan, to urgently increase food and nutrition assistance, water and sanitation services, shelter and healthcare.  

This year’s floods have hit the people in Bentiu, the capital of Unity state, the hardest, while over 800,000 people across the country have been affected. An estimated 32,000 people have fled rising floodwaters in the surrounding villages and counties of Guit and Nhyaldu, and are now living in four makeshift camps in Bentiu town. Meanwhile, the number of people in Bentiu internally displaced persons camp (formerly a Protection of Civilians site) has grown by 12,000 in just a couple of months, and now holds at least 120,000 people, with thousands more likely to have arrived in the past weeks.