The camp where approximately 40,000 people have sought shelter from attacks by soldiers in South Sudan’s Unity State witnessed heavy flooding yesterday leading to the destruction shelters, latrines and supplies.

At the ‘Protection of Civilians’ site in Bentiu, which is located at the UNMISS base in the town, floods were triggered by heavy rains that lasted for hours.

Speaking on Miraya FM the Community Chairperson James Madut described the situation in the flood-prone camp as ‘very bad.’

Latrines have collapsed, shelters have washed away, some people now have no place to lie down, and they have nowhere else to go. Camp residents are reluctant to go outside the camp perimeter to find higher ground because they fear being assaulted, raped or killed. 

MSF has said that it sees a lot of cases of diarrhea and malnutrition in the camp, with children under age 5 dying at a rate of three every two days.

“It was very, very big rain, it began to rain yesterday at 10:00 p.m. and it stopped at 1:00 p.m. the other day, now the all camp is flooded. Everybody is in the water,” said James Madut.

He added that all the tukuls in the camp are now under water and there is no dry land is in sight.

Another person in the camp speaking on the radio said, “We are just sleeping in the water. Some people have no bed… you stand in the water until the morning.”

“The situation is very, very difficult – beyond description – because everybody is on the water there isn’t any place that has been left out without water.”

File photo (IRC)