11 November 2013 - UNMISS South Korean peacekeepers are digging water channels in the Jonglei State capital Bor to assist residents control fresh floods that have displaced them from their homes.

Following floods that also displaced them in August and September, the local population had returned to their homes in Bor County. But new floods this week burst the banks of the River Nile again, displacing residents in 12 villages and leaving many without shelter.

“Our people are under water and we are appealing to our national government, … the high committee for floods and disasters and … to the international community that we need support,” said Acting State Governor Hussein Maar, after an inter-ministerial task force assessment mission to the area today.

“We are also appealing to our communities here … to put their hands together and do some work so that we actually help ourselves before other people come to our help,” he added.

Using excavators, the UNMISS South Korean engineering contingent is now constructing water channels and carrying mounds of soil along main roads in Bor town to control the floods.

“The floods are affecting every place in Bor,” said the county’s Executive Director and Acting Commissioner, Johnson Simon Lul. “People also migrate (to the areas that are not affected, leading to congestion), which makes service delivery difficult there.”

In the last three months, UNMISS has helped flood victims across different states in South Sudan with food, health services and engineering works to control the floods.