| HotSpots H2O: Flooding Is Latest Strain on South Sudan
Torrential rainfall is battering one of the world’s poorest countries, laying bare its weak infrastructure.
For weeks now, regions of South Sudan have faced the worst rainfall in over 50 years. Homes have been swept away, herds of cattle have drowned, and entire fields of sorghum and millet are inundated. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the rains have affected 700,000 people and counting, though the death toll remains unknown.
The severity and intensity of the storms is a result of global climate change, the agency says. It’s an issue to which the world’s poorest countries like South Sudan largely did not contribute—comprising just a sliver of global carbon emissions—but are the most vulnerable.
The floods are just the latest strain on the country. Violence in South Sudan has eased since its civil war ended last year, but ethnic conflict, community grievances, as well as climatic stressors like drought and flooding continue to drive tensions in the region. | 
