A girl holds her baby sister while waiting to collect food rations in the town of Mingkaman. The children have been displaced by recent violence in South Sudan. Credit: Kate Holt, of UNICEF Source: Supplied
THE storm came with such speed and ferocity that no one was prepared.
For Thot, 20, the sudden ferocious downpour scared his youngest siblings as it quickly washed through the tent they now call home.
"I was sitting with my five brothers and sisters in the tent, playing a game, and then 'boom', the rains came down so hard it was like the sky was angry with the people below," he said.
"The floor quickly filled with water and all of our clothes, food, supplies … everything was soaked.
"The little ones were scared, but what could we do? We just sat there, wet, until the rain passed."
People go about their daily lives alongside dirty water in a camp for displaced people, located on the base of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the city of Malakal, South Sudan. About 22,000 people are located in the mission camp. Credit: Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin, of UNICEF Source: Supplied
Now, along with thousands of others in a camp for displaced South Sudanese, Thot is pulling his meagre possessions from the mud — including the mattresses his family sleeps on — and trying to find somewhere for them to dry.
Here, in a camp in South Sudan's capital, Juba, 27,000 people have taken refuge from recent violence. This new challenge, wrought by just two hours of rain, is a worrying portent for an already devastated community.
Adults and children alike are scouring the mire to reclaim what few of their already meagre possessions they can reclaim.
Children displaced by recent fighting in South Sudan stand outside a tented school run by UNICEF, in the town of Mingkaman, where humanitarian assistance is being provided. Credit: Kate Holt, of UNICEF Source: Supplied
Like its surrounds, the UN peacekeeping base has been transformed into a muddy soup of debris with workers forced to tread carefully so as not to slip and fall in the muck.
Turning off the wide muddy track forming the camp's main road and you venture into a warren of tiny paths running between the rows of tents and shelters.
Here you soon found yourself in mud up to the ankles and on high alert to avoid the pools of filthy water at least a foot deep.
A steady procession of women and children pass, sloshing through water in search of higher ground to dry clothes and bedding in the hot sun. Everyone, me included, is filthy.
It's in these flooded pathways that I meet Thot and see what had happened in his shelter. A makeshift tarpaulin roof has collapsed from the sheer force of rain and the earthen floor is still deep underwater.
"Look at this," Thot said. "We cannot stay here anymore so we have taken everything we have left and gone to sit by the camp's main road. We have nowhere else to go, nowhere to sleep."
Close tents of Tomping displacement camp, near Juba, South Sudan, means heavy rains can't drain easily and leaves little space for people to dry their sodden clothes and possessions. Credit: Chris Tidey, of UNICEF Source: Supplied
There are now more than 705,000 people displaced in their own country, by the violent conflict in South Sudan. Since the political crisis erupted on December 1, many have taken refuge on low-lying land prone to flooding during the rainy season.
Fearing for their safety, they are unable to return to their homes. The displaced here in the Tomgping camp have some safety from the violence, but, like hundreds of thousands of citizens of the world's newest nations — they are staring down disaster.
"If one night of rain can do this," a community elder introduced to me as Paul asked, "what will happen when the rains come every day?"
A child clothed with what's available after a storm washes through Tomping displacement camp at the United Nations peacekeeping mission near Juba, in South Sudan. Credit: Chris Tidey, of UNICEF Source: Supplied
As this storm and damage to the Tomgping site so aptly demonstrate, inadequate preparations for the looming rainy season will have catastrophic consequences for South Sudan's displaced.
UNICEF's representative in South Sudan Steven Lauwerier says the window of opportunity is small but there are urgent actions to that are being rolled out now.
"Latrines in flood-prone IDP communities must be moved to higher ground to prevent contamination; humanitarian supplies, essential medicines and children's nutritional supplements must be shipped and in situ before roads become impassable; and children must urgently be vaccinated against opportunistic diseases which thrive under these conditions" he said.
"Acting now will save children's lives in the future."
Women displaced by recent fighting in South Sudan rest at a food distribution site in the town of Mingkaman. Credit: Kate Holt, of UNICEF Source: Supplied
UNICEF and its partners are working to help children and families prepare for the rainy season. Ongoing activities include the pre-positioning of supplies such as ready-to-use therapeutic food for the treatment of malnutrition, launching cholera and measles vaccination campaigns, and the establishment of key programs in locations likely to become inaccessible during the rains.
UNICEF in South Sudan has appealed for $81 million in support of its emergency humanitarian response over the first six months of this year. The appeal remains 80 per cent unfunded.
A girl walks through floodwater amid damaged and destroyed makeshift shelters, in the inundated Tomping displacement camp at the United Nations peacekeeping mission near Juba, in South Sudan. Credit: Chris Tidey, of UNICEF Source: Supplied
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