An estimated 1,300 individuals were displaced by floods in the three payams Adok, Yang, and Thonyor in Unity State’s Leer County last week after heavy rains.
John Jal Goak, a resident of Leer Town, told Radio Tamazuj that most of the displaced people have arrived in the township after their homes were inundated by flood waters.
He said the flood-affected people have no food, shelter, and other necessities because they lost their properties to the floods after heavy rains.
“We are sharing the little we have with those who were forced to leave their homes due to heavy flooding and come to Leer Town,” he narrated. “I am appealing to local authorities to engage national and international organizations to launch an emergency response to help the displaced people.”
For his party, koat James Lony, one of the displaced persons from Yang Payam, said the torrential rain started at night and the resultant flashfloods entered their house, waking and forcing them out.
“It started raining heavily and I found myself and my five children in the water at night. We had to leave the house and started moving from low land affected by floods to higher ground,” he explained.
He appealed to well-wishers and relief organizations to come to the aid of the flood-displaced people.
“All of us the people who were displaced from the three payams need humanitarian assistance from the state and national governments and humanitarian organizations to save us from this bad situation,” Koat said. “We lack shelter, safe drinking water and there is a shortage of drugs in the different health centers here.”
Meanwhile, Paulino Keah Mawich, the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) Director in Leer County, said they lack resources to support the displaced persons.
“It is difficult for us to support them because as a local authority, we do not have the resources, and yet they lack food, tarpaulin for shelters, clean drinking water, and other basics,” he stated. “We held a meeting with 16 NGOs that operate in Leer on Monday and asked them to respond and help the flood victims. The meeting was successful and they promised to assist next week.”
“As we are talking right now, there are 1,300 flood-displaced individuals in Leer Town since last week,” Keah added.