Thousands of people have been left homeless by floods that have inundated parts of Uror County in Jonglei State since last week.
The devastating flooding followed days of torrential rains and the overflow of water bodies in the neighboring Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA).
Uror County Commissioner James Gatkhor Gatluak told Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday that almost the entire county was flooded, leaving 30,000 people homeless.
The Commissioner identified the affected villages as including Motot, Pulchuol, Karam, Patahai, Pamai, Tiam, and Panyok. In total, he said, 18 villages and 27,000 people have been affected.
These people have been moved to higher grounds where food and shelter were lacking, he said.
Gatkhor explained that while assessing the devastation, it took him five hours to move from Pamai and Tiam, a distance that could have taken just two hours on normal days. He warned of a worsening situation as more floods were expected and appealed for humanitarian intervention.
The county Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) Coordinator, Gatwang Jokthiang Machar, said the situation was dire.
“In the first phase, 27,000 individuals were displaced across 18 villages. Later 10,902 more individuals were displaced. This flooding is devastating and the humanitarian situation will worsen because we have the displaced coming from Duk and Ayod counties. So we are appealing for intervention,” he said.