Hannah Felsbourg
28 October 2025
South Sudanese church leaders in Australia and overseas are calling for emergency aid, including medicine and shelter materials, amid severe flooding in the African nation.
Heavy rainfall since 2020 has displaced hundreds of thousands of people nationally and many from Jonglei State in eastern South Sudan along the White Nile are unable to return home.
Communities face cholera outbreaks, lack of medical care and the need for resettlement support as floodwaters persist.
In Jonglei State’s Twic East region, Wanglei Bishop Zechariah Manyok said the flooding had completely transformed the area.
“I don’t think we can go back there again because the place is completely changed,” Bishop Manyok said.
“The landscape is completely different. It has become a swamp.”
Bishop Manyok said water levels were the highest in decades, exceeding historic floods in 1962.
The flooding is driven by record-high water levels in Lake Victoria, the source of the White Nile, combined with heavy seasonal rainfall in the region.
Bishop Zechariah Manyok and Wanglei diocesan youth coordinator James Atem Loy sitting in a canoe while Pongborong Archdeacon Paul Bul Alaak pushes the canoe towards Pongborong. Picture: Peter Manyang Gabriel
Wanglei became a full diocese in 2018 and began building essential infrastructure in 2019. The flooding destroyed that work.
The temporary cathedral now has floodwater inside, with his bed and mattress hanging from the ceiling above the bishop’s throne to keep them dry.
Buildings that were still under construction have collapsed, while those still standing are in poor condition.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs flooding displaced at least 1 million people annually in South Sudan between 2019 and 2022.
Bishop Manyok said displaced communities urgently needed plastic sheets for makeshift shelters and to use as rafts to transport people and belongings through floodwater.
He said medicine was desperately needed, with cholera recurring frequently in the swampy areas since 2024.
Church leaders are exploring resettlement to higher ground, but communities would need wire mesh fencing to provide security while people built new homes, he said.
Arriving at St John’s Pro-cathedral in Alieet. Picture: Supplied
Bishop Manyok asked Christians overseas to pray for stability in South Sudan and that people would not return to war.
He also asked people to pray for moderate rainfall that would allow crops to grow without causing more flooding.
“Even though the rain may be dangerous in some areas, it’s good in some other areas because we want to work and produce food for ourselves,” Bishop Manyok said.
Bishop Manyok said the displaced Christians were still doing well spiritually, and the first thing they did when they went to a new place was build a church.
St Peter’s Jieeng Authorised Anglican Congregation child safe officer James Mayen is from Twic East County where more than 50,000 people have been displaced by flooding.
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Mr Mayen said Twic East County had been the most severely affected area in Jonglei State, but the flooding had also affected neighbouring dioceses and states across the region.
Animals that people depended on for their livelihoods had died, crops had been destroyed, and there was no food. Health facilities and schools no longer existed in the area.
Mr Mayen had heard reports of people in the area struggling to access health services in the wake of the flood.
He heard of a girl who was bitten by a snake and was carried by human ambulance to another area to seek treatment. Women also had to give birth with no hospital facilities.
Mr Mayen said Christians had a responsibility to respond because Jesus prioritised the vulnerable.
He said faith-based organisations were typically the first to aid in disaster situations, whereas governments often took too long to respond.
“We are Christian, even if we come from that place, we try to help back home with whatever we can,” he said.
The Anglican Relief and Development Fund Australia is running an agricultural tools project to help internally displaced people from the Diocese of Twic East.
The ARDFA project aims to provide farming tools, seeds, fertilizers and training to help communities achieve food security.
More information is available at ardfa.org.au/south-sudan-agricultural-tools.
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