UN chief warns of 'perfect storm' as South Sudan fighting displaces nearly 280,000

Renewed clashes in South Sudan’s Jonglei state have driven nearly 280,000 people from their homes in recent weeks, damaging health facilities, fuelling a cholera outbreak and pushing an already fragile humanitarian situation closer to the edge, the United Nations (UN) said. Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher flew into the country last Friday for a five-day visit, describing a crisis that is “deteriorating and underreported” and warning of a “perfect storm of climate change, conflict, inequality and poverty.”

Fighting between the national army and the rival Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in-Opposition, which flared up again in late December, has swept across central and northern Jonglei, sending families into Upper Nile and Lakes states. Most are sheltering in the open or in makeshift structures with almost nothing — markets have shut down, farming has stopped, and entire communities are left with little or no food. The World Food Programme has ramped up assistance, but looting of aid convoys and ongoing insecurity are making it extremely difficult to get help through.

The human cost is stark. At a hospital in Akobo, southern Jonglei, Fletcher met patients that included an 18-month-old child and a 70-year-old grandmother who had walked seven days to reach care — at least 93 people with gunshot wounds had been treated by 18 February. “The father was shot. The mother was abducted,” one humanitarian worker told him at the facility. Three humanitarian personnel have been killed since early February, and 13 health facilities have been damaged or looted, leaving some counties with almost no functioning healthcare.

Cholera is spreading rapidly against this backdrop. Between 11 and 17 February alone, 106 new cases and three deaths were recorded across five counties. Since the outbreak began in September 2024, more than 98,000 cases and 1,624 deaths have been tallied nationwide — numbers that will almost certainly rise as health infrastructure continues to collapse.

Fletcher did not mince words about what is needed. “How do we get a peace process? How do we end this conflict?” he asked, before adding a blunter challenge: “How do we cut through the noise of distraction and apathy?” His visit is a direct appeal to the international community not to look away from South Sudan while other crises dominate the headlines.