Women and child wade in flood waters at a market in Bor Town on Friday, July 30, 2020 | Credit | Courtesy

The African Development Bank has provided 200,000 US dollars to help people affected by the floods in South Sudan.

The grant will be given through the Food and Agriculture Organization or FAO.

In a statement Friday, the FAO representative in South Sudan said that the funding is part of a multinational emergency response proposal to provide humanitarian assistance to flood-affected populations in Sudan and South Sudan.

Meshack Malo reveals that the contribution will be used to provide food and nutrition assistance to almost 50,000 vulnerable and displaced people.

“This contribution is crucial to allow tens of thousands of people displaced by the floods to procure their own food and avoid the spectrum of hunger,” said the FAO representative.

For his part, the AfDB Country Manager for South Sudan, Benedict Kanu says the assistance will help provide much-needed food and nutrition support and food for-asset activities complementing the contributions from the government and other partners.

Since July 2020, unprecedented flooding has destroyed the homes and farmlands of over 800,000 people – with Jonglei and Lakes being the worst affected states – forcing many to leave their homes.

Torrential rains have caused rivers to overflow their dykes and banks, disrupting trade routes, damaging crops, killing livestock and submerging houses of tens of thousands of South Sudanese.

FAO says according to an assessment conducted in August 2020, around 12, 000 tonnes of cereal – 45 percent of the total cereal area – in the state of Jonglei was damaged due to flooding, creating serious food shortages for thousands of displaced people in the coming months.