Local authorities in Nimule Town Council in South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria state have confirmed that over 400 households have been displaced after floods destroyed their houses.

The floods are a result of heavy rains last weekend which led to River Unyama bursting its banks. 

The Executive Director in the now-defunct Pageri County, John Ohure Tecks Solomon, said 400 households were registered as having been displaced by the flooding.

“Yesterday, we formed a committee under the leadership of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) department. They went and came with the report that some houses have been destroyed in the areas of Hai Kanisa and Motoyo West. Over 400 households were destroyed over the weekend because those areas are lowlands," he said.

“The committee will come up with the real report after registering the affected people and then we shall report them to RRC State headquarters and it will now be up to them to decide what they will do for the people who lost their houses,” Solomon added.

Solomon said the flooding has not affected the cross border movement of vehicles and that business activities are operating normally in the border town.

“Elegu Town (Uganda) has been reported flooded even to the extent that the floodwaters have cut off the road going to the other side of the low land but the cars are moving. Even this morning a lot of cars were coming from Uganda as it does not affect movement much,” according to Solomon.

Mude Emmanuel Malis, the youth leader at St. Francis of Assisi parish of the Catholic Diocese of Torit in Nimule told Radio Tamazuj yesterday that the rains and resultant flooding have disrupted people’s lives in the border town.

“Within Nimule here these rains have interrupted a lot and when you go to the side of Motoyo East suburb and parts of Malakia West, houses were demolished by the flash floods. Some of the people have gone to their neighbors and others have shifted to other places which are on higher ground for safety,” Malis said. “At the moment the displaced people require health care and things like mosquito nets, blankets, and other humanitarian assistance.”

Bol Kwir Agwer, the Dinka chief in Nimule and a resident of Motoyo, said residents have moved to seek safety in schools and higher land along roads.

“The people whose houses are destroyed have moved to schools and some have gone to higher places like the road and the mountain. We are just living like this with no help given to us but we just ask God for help. There is no food, mosquito nets, plastic sheets are not there, we don’t have anything,” chief Kwir said.

On the Ugandan side of the border, Elegu Town Council has been submerged in floods since Saturday night after River Unyama, which is the Nile's tributary burst its banks.