Flood Response Action – Climate Security Alert Summary

This publication provides a comprehensive geographical summary of community self-relocation high grounds in South Sudan, serving as a strategic climate security alert for the 2025 flood season. Building on the 2024 National Flood Preparedness and Response Plan, the brief documents a total of 302 high grounds across 10 states and 2 administrative areas, analyzing their elevation, vulnerability, and role in mitigating flood impacts. It underscores their role as critical lifelines for self-relocation during floods while also highlighting the risks of overcrowding, prolonged displacement, and tensions among host and displaced communities.

Going beyond a simple inventory, the document highlights how these high grounds, while crucial for humanitarian response, are also potential flashpoints for conflict due to historical grievances and the congregation of diverse communities. By treating high grounds as nature-based infrastructure within national flood preparedness efforts, the summary emphasizes their importance not only for immediate survival but also for safeguarding social cohesion and sustaining fragile peace. The brief provides a strategic guidance note for humanitarian and peacekeeping actors, detailing measures for safe access, governance, and conflict-sensitive planning. It underscores the vital role of dialogue and community sensitization in ensuring peaceful coexistence and continued safe access during a disaster. The publication concludes by acknowledging the report's limitation in capturing data on pastoralist movements, an area for future action to prevent a key source of conflict.