In South Sudan’s Ayod area, long-horned cattle roam through flooded lands while displaced families seek shelter along a canal. Smoke from burning dung rises near small homes made of mud and grass, where thousands now live after floods destroyed their village.

“This suffering is too much,” said 70-year-old Bichiok Hoth Chuiny, leaning on a stick as she moved through the new Pajiek community in Jonglei state, north of Juba. For the first time in decades, flooding forced her to leave her home. Her attempts to protect her village, Gorwai, by building dykes failed, and the area is now a swamp. “I had to be pulled here by canoe,” she added.

Flooding is now a yearly crisis in South Sudan. The World Bank calls it the country most vulnerable to climate change with little ability to cope. Over 379,000 people have been displaced by floods this year, according to the U.N.

Floods have long been part of life in the Sudd wetlands, one of Africa’s largest, but since the 1960s, the wetlands have expanded, swallowing villages, destroying farmland, and killing livestock. Communities like the Dinka, Nuer, and Murle in Jonglei are finding it harder to farm and keep cattle as they used to, says Daniel Akech Thiong of the International Crisis Group.

South Sudan, independent since 2011, struggles to adapt. A civil war that began in 2013 caused ongoing problems despite a 2018 peace deal. Over 2.4 million people are still displaced due to both conflict and floods. Recent flooding has been linked to dams in Uganda releasing water after Lake Victoria reached record levels.

The unfinished Jonglei Canal, built in the early 1900s to increase Nile water flow, is now a refuge for displaced people. “Without this canal, we don’t know where the floods would have pushed us,” said Pajiek’s chief, Peter Kuach Gatchang. In his new home, he has started growing pumpkins and eggplants.

The 211-mile canal project was stopped decades ago due to conflicts between southern Sudanese and the Sudanese government. Now, the Pajiek community, built along the canal, lacks basic services. “We have no school or clinic. We carry our sick on stretchers to Ayod town,” Gatchang said. Ayod, the nearest town, is a six-hour walk through waist-high water.

Pajiek has no mobile network or government services and is controlled by a rebel group, the SPLM-IO, led by Vice President Riek Machar. Aid is the community's main lifeline. Recently, women received food from the World Food Program (WFP). Nyabuot Reat Kuor, a mother of eight, carried a 110-pound bag of sorghum home. “The floods destroyed our farm and livestock. Our old village, Gorwai, is now a river,” she said. When aid runs out, families survive on wild plants and water lilies. WFP has cut food rations in half due to funding shortages.

Over 69,000 people in Ayod rely on WFP aid, but delivering supplies is tough. Roads are impassable, and the canal is too shallow for large boats, said WFP’s John Kimemia. In nearby Paguong, a health center has few supplies, and staff haven’t been paid for months. Medicine ran out in September, and civil servants across the country have gone unpaid for over a year due to economic troubles worsened by a damaged oil pipeline in neighboring Sudan.

Without antivenom, treating life-threatening snake bites has become impossible, said clinical officer Juong Dok Tut. In October, the center treated four severe cases, but supplies have since run out.

Flooding continues to worsen living conditions for many in South Sudan, leaving communities to rely on aid and their resilience to survive.