South Sudan flooding affects over a million people

By Nichola Mandil

The government of South Sudan says more than one million people have been affected by flash flooding this year.

Disaster Management Minister Peter Mayen Majongdit announced this while receiving food aid from Egypt.

He said the donated food items that include sugar, rice, lentils and other items would be distributed to the affected people.

Cairo airlifted 12 metric tonnes of assorted food items.

Last week, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) reported that some 760,000 people had been affected by flooding.

The government now says the total number of those affected has risen to 1.2 million.

Jonglei state in the east and the two oil-producing states of Unity and Upper Nile in the north are said to be the worst affected as a result of rising waters across the country since May.

This article originally appeared in BBC News.

Photo: UNOCHA.