U.N. "South Sudan floods 1.4 million people...7 million people are food insecure"

The worst floods in South Sudan last month have worsened the humanitarian situation, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

According to the OCHA Situation Report, more than 1.4 million people, or 13% of the total population, across 43 counties in South Sudan after last month's floods, have suffered from the flood.

Of these, 379,000 people in 22 counties were displaced.

Malaria cases are surging throughout the flood-stricken region, exacerbating the damage, OCHA said.

As the food crisis has also deepened, the U.N. World Food Program said more than 7 million people in South Sudan were suffering from food insecurity and 1.65 million children were malnourished as of last month.

South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, sparked a civil war in 2013 when President Salva Kiir identified the then vice president as a simulated force for the coup.

The civil war has intensified to the point where millions of refugees have fled amid armed conflict between the president and those supporting the vice president.

A peace agreement was signed in 2018 with Ethiopia's mediation and a coalition government was formed in 2020, but clashes between the two forces continued.

With the worst floods in decades amid political instability, it is predicted that social chaos and humanitarian crises in South Sudan will intensify for the time being.