As many countries in eastern Africa suffer the worst drought in four decades, South Sudan sits uneasily on the opposite end of the spectrum—saturated by years of intense flooding that has affected more than one million people in the country. The floods have displaced hundreds of thousands of people, killed millions of animals, and destroyed thousands of acres of crops, compounding an escalating food security crisis in the country. The UN World Food Program estimates than more than 75 percent of South Sudan’s population is in need of food assistance.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is running outreach services and mobile clinics to ensure health care is available for the most vulnerable people in remote areas. MSF teams are also witnessing an alarming increase in rates of moderate to severe acute malnutrition. From January to September this year, more than 4,200 children were treated for malnutrition across MSF medical facilities in South Sudan. Large swathes of stagnant floodwater have also become the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. Between July to September this year, MSF treated 81,104 patients with malaria.