Bul Kuir People in Bor have been seen wading through the water

Residents of South Sudan’s Jonglei State are gripped by fear following heavy flooding and are predicting a disaster if help does not come.

Last week, David Shearer, the head of the UN’s peacekeeping mission here, told the Security Council that heavy flooding had affected 500,000 people in central South Sudan.

Hundreds of buildings have collapsed in the state capital Bor. Water points and the sewage systems have also been damaged.

“In the next two weeks as water keeps coming from the Ethiopian highlands, if there is no intervention from the government and humanitarian agencies, there is going to be a disaster. I am worried,” Biar Amotchiir Bullen, a resident of Makol Chuei, north of Bor, told the BBC.

BBC

Residents of several localities have been on the move looking for a safe place to stay.

Deng Ajak, director of a government humanitarian agency in Jonglei state, says seven counties out of nine have been submerged, with Bor hard-hit by flooding.

“As a government we are trying our best. We have distributed food to 8,000 people in Bor. But we are urging our humanitarian partners to intervene,” Mr Ajak told the BBC by phone from Bor on Monday.