South Sudan is among the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. Climate change-related extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, are exacerbating local conflict dynamics, displacing communities, eroding livelihoods, and increasing competition for limited resources.
When record-breaking floods swept through South Sudan in 2024, over 1.4 million people were affected and 380,000 displaced1. Entire communities, schools, and health facilities were submerged, just as political tensions and insecurity deepened across the country. In the face of these overlapping crises and ahead of this year’s rainy season, the Climate Security Mechanism (CSM) convened a UN Community of Practice on Climate, Peace & Security (CPS) meeting dedicated to flood preparedness and response in South Sudan. The meeting brought together Johnson Nkem, Climate, Peace and Security Advisor to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and Felix Omunu, Head of the Planning and Strategic Coordination Unit at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in South Sudan. They shared how their teams collaborated to integrate climate and conflict analysis into humanitarian action, highlighting how UNMISS and the UN Country Team (UNCT) joined forces with development partners, academic and research institutions to co-lead a conflict-sensitive response and mitigate climate-related peace and security risks.
Severe flooding is anticipated again in 2025, coupled with an evolving and challenging political and security context in the country, making this discussion around lessons learned on the flood response particularly timely. This Community of Practice session focused on consolidating lessons from the 2024 flood response, sharing innovative approaches to integrating climate, peace and security considerations and identifying forward-looking recommendations to inform interagency preparedness and coordination for the anticipated 2025 flooding season. It provided a platform for the UN and partners to reflect on best practices, operational challenges, and opportunities to strengthen whole-of-system responses in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.
United for Resilience: Coordinated UN Action Strengthens Flood Response in South Sudan
UNMISS and the UN Country Team worked closely with national authorities to embed climate-security risk assessments into South Sudan’s 2024 National Flood Preparedness and Response Plan, developed by the National Flood Preparedness and Response Taskforce, co-chaired by OCHA and the South Sudan Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs. This collaboration ensured the plan addressed not only humanitarian and logistical needs but also the prevention and mitigation of conflict risks exacerbated by flooding. At the sub-national level, the CPS Advisor and his team supported state and county flood taskforces—including in critical areas like Bentiu—by providing analysis, extensive sensitization and awareness raising activities among local authorities and communities regarding flood dynamics, and the strategic use of high grounds for self-relocation.
In support of flood planning and response, the CPS Advisor and his team developed a dynamic Flood Management and Conflict Sensitivity Dashboard and Database to track flood impacts, population movements, and coexistence dynamics across 243 high ground locations identified for self-relocation. The dashboard provided UN actors with early warning alerts on flooding, displacement and response activities implemented by the UNMISS Civil Affairs Division. These efforts included over 30 flood sensitization campaigns and peace dialogues to mitigate tensions and reinforce community resilience. For instance, in Lakes State, peacekeepers navigated heavily flooded roads to facilitate a crucial peace dialogue between communities in Yirol and displaced cattle keepers from Unity State. This intervention directly addressed rising tensions over scarce resources and land use, exacerbated by the floods, building on pre-existing challenges of cattle raiding and revenge attacks.
Through the National Flood Preparedness and Response Taskforce, humanitarian actors actively responded to reach hard-hit areas nationwide, delivering life-saving aid such as Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), health, non-food items and protection services, as well as coordinating community-driven dyke reinforcements, supported with sandbags and tools. UNMISS coordinated closely with the UNCT, the UN Police (UNPOL) and Force, providing security during critical deliveries of humanitarian assistance and along key axes to help create conditions conducive to the delivery of humanitarian assistance and to ensure the protection of humanitarian workers.
The UN response to the floods showcases a whole-of-UN and complementary approach by different UN entities to address climate-related peace and security risks in fragile settings. These integrated efforts were recognized by national authorities, including the 8th Governors’ Forum, where CPS-informed resolutions and recommendations—such as those on conflict sensitization, high ground relocation, and resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) (Resolutions 34–36)—were adopted. These efforts have also been recognized in the new UNMISS mandate adopted by the Security Council on 8 May, which not only maintained all climate, peace and security language but also included new language commending the activities of peacekeepers to assist flood-affected communities and highlights the importance of providing gender-sensitive risk assessments on the adverse effects of climate change.
From Crisis to Capacity: Lessons, Challenges, and the Road Ahead
The 2024 joint efforts underscored the importance of consistent risk monitoring and reporting, as well as close collaboration and effective coordination among stakeholders to enhance early action, preparedness and response. Timely communication of risks and forecasts has proven critical in mobilizing action and resources and informing decisions for flood preparedness. Leveraging local knowledge, community skills and experiences proved key to preventing climate shocks from becoming conflict triggers. A poignant example of localized resilience was shared, highlighting the relentless efforts of youth in heavily impacted areas in Fangak, Jonglei, who, even as water came to their necks, worked with rudimentary tools to reinforce defenses. This underscored the importance of systematically facilitating and empowering youth engagement in preparedness and response.
Besides highlighting these best practices, participants also discussed persisting challenges. Delayed flood-risk warnings, language barriers in communication, limited anticipatory funding for mitigation and prevention, as well as under-prepositioning of supplies all hindered response efforts. Looking ahead, recommendations for enhanced flood preparedness and response included investing in improved risk communication to communities, localizing planning and strengthening community engagement to close the feedback loop—as well as enhancing women and youth involvement specifically. Key recommendations for the upcoming flood season also emphasized advanced anticipatory and mitigation actions, further strengthening early warning systems and the timely mobilization and allocation of resources.
Forecasting Fragility: Climate Shocks and Conflict Risks
Looking ahead to the upcoming flood season, participants discussed how, in South Sudan, local, regional and spatial climate change expressions are shaping future conflict. On the local level, this manifests in rainfall and temperature. On the regional level, the influence of phenomena like El Nino and La Nina (ENSO), as well as changing temperature and rainfall patterns in neighboring countries and shared transboundary systems (e.g. the Nile Basin or Lake Victoria) contribute to these impacts. Spatial changes in the Sudd, other wetlands, swamps, lakes and rivers influence the amount and extent of resident water spatially and temporarily in South Sudan.
The same areas at risk of increasingly severe flooding are concurrently grappling with significant security challenges and localized conflict dynamics (e.g. Upper Nile, Unity, Jonglei, Pibor, Central and Western Equatoria States), posing major challenges in responding. These include regions that have recently experienced incidents such as aerial bombardments, particularly in Jonglei and Unity states, further complicating humanitarian access and civilian protection. These regions often experience pre-existing inter-communal tensions over resources, exacerbated by displacement and livelihood destruction caused by floods. The ongoing armed conflict is likely to constrain flexibility for relocation in using the high grounds as a critical and cost-efficient measure of the flood preparedness and response actions, constituting an emerging challenge for the protection of civilians by the Mission. The ongoing armed conflict is also expected to complicate conducting awareness raising, sensitization campaigns, and intercommunal dialogues for the effective management of coordinated relocation and accommodation of displaced communities. Loss of seasonal productivity of livelihood systems and critical ecosystems due to climate impacts will likely trigger displacement and migration of communities—including unorderly pastoral migration—amplify hunger and poverty, and increase the tendency for looting and raids, which easily degenerate into cycles of conflict and violence with potential humanitarian consequences.
Given these growing challenges, the need for continued and improved collaboration across the UN system and among all stakeholders involved was strongly emphasized throughout the session and the importance of inclusive climate-informed approaches to peace and security was also clearly underscored. With major floods expected again in 2025, the stakes are high. But the South Sudan experience offers a powerful example of how UN peacekeepers and humanitarians can work hand-in-hand to build resilience—before the next crisis hits.
1United Nations Security Council, 24 January 2025, Report of the Secretary-General on the Situation in South Sudan, S/2025/54.
