Cattle replaced by fish as South Sudan reels from two years of devastating floods
It is often said that water is a blessing in South Sudan but the people who live in this impoverished nation have been given good reason to reconsider an unquestionable truth.
Two years of unprecedented flooding has changed the way the country looks, with thousands of kilometres of rich agricultural land now lying under water.
In the counties which surround the town of Bor, in Jonglei state, some 200,000 people have been forced to seek higher ground after an island formed on their land.
Huge areas of rich agricultural land are now under water
In communities where residents raised cattle and grew cereals like sorghum, fish now dart through the water and large water lilies have spread themselves on the surface.
The entire ecosystem, in an area of some 1,300 square kilometres, has changed beyond recognition.
The neatly constructed roofs of numerous towns and villages are visible above the water line but there is no sign – or sound – of life from within. The highways and byways have been washed away.
We hitched a lift to Bor on a helicopter with the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), which is now supporting 2.6 million people in South Sudan with emergency food aid.
But there is no way to move beyond Bor and into the floodlands in a conventional vehicle.
Instead, the WFP uses amphibious craft called “sherps”, and Sky News was given a couple of seats in the back of one of these contraptions on a mission to save an ageing dyke.
The floodwaters overwhelming the counties of Jonglei state stem from two separate sources.
Children wade through floodwaters after the Nile broke the dykes in Pibor last year
Much of the water has flowed from Lake Victoria – at the head of the Nile river system – some 800 kilometres to the north.
Unprecedented rainfall has been flowing into the lake since summer 2019.
The Ugandans, who control the dam at the top of the Nile, have been releasing water to prevent what is known as “backflow” from destroying communities on the lake itself.
As a result, the White Nile has burst its banks to devastating effect in South Sudan.
The second source is found in last year’s rainy season – which never actually stopped in South Sudan.
The UN uses special vehicles to get around
Now, this year’s monsoon is scheduled to start. The cumulative effect of both events has resulted in fundamental environmental change.
The UN is trying to restore an aging dyke in the vicinity of Bor.
It would allow tens of thousands of people to return to the land, but the earthworks have been destroyed in more than 40 places by the flooding.
Local people want to get back to farming
We watched small groups of men lug 80kg bags of sand and mud into position in just one of these sizable gaps.
There are 1,500 working on the dyke and all are men who used to farm in the area. Now they live in displacement camps in surrounding towns and villages and everyone here dreams of returning to the land.
“We need to protect our territory – this is our territory and the water is beyond our control,” said a young man called Mangol Guy Peter.
“God has taken but he will also provide.”
But the state minister for housing in Jonglei, Elijah Mabior Bol, is less certain about God’s role. He suspects his nation will bear the brunt of decisions made by human beings in far flung places.
The state minister for housing in Jonglei state thinks global warming is to blame
“It is when you have given up of thinking, scientifically, that’s why you say it is God,” he said.
“But to us, we say it is global warning. I remember in 1966 and 1967 we used to walk here from Bor on foot and now it is different territory. I can’t believe it – I can’t believe this was the soil we used to walk on when in elementary school in the 60s. It has totally changed.”
The people who grew cereals and raised animals in this region have gone. Those who remain must fish or grind flowers of water lilies into small amounts of cereal.
It is a difficult new world and they are trying to adapt.
The mother of the Georgia shooting suspect called the school 30 minutes warning of an “extreme emergency” before he allegedly opened fire there, his aunt has claimed.
Colt Gray, 14, is accused of shooting dead two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, near Atlanta, on Wednesday.
Another teacher and a further eight students were injured but are expected to make a full recovery, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Annie Brown, the teenager’s aunt, has said her sister called the school counsellor half an hour before gunfire broke out.
She told the Washington Post the boy’s mother warned of an “extreme emergency” involving her son and that they needed to find him “immediately”.
Phone records shared with the newspaper, and later confirmed by the Associated Press, show a 10-minute call was made from the family’s shared phone plan to the school at that time.
Colt Gray at Barrow County courthouse on Friday. Pic: AP
Gray appeared in court on Friday when he was charged as an adult with the murders of Mason Schermerhorn, 14, Christian Angulo, 14, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53.
His father Colin Gray, 54, also appeared in court and has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder for allowing his son to get hold of a weapon.
Colin Gray. Pic: Barrow County Sheriff’s Office
Father interviewed over shooting threats last year
Colin Gray was interviewed by police last year over threats his son made on the gaming platform Discord that he might carry out a shooting.
He told officials he had hunting guns locked in a safe in the family home – but his son did not have access to them.
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He said the teenager had struggled with his parents’ separation and often got picked on at school.
“He knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them,” the boy’s father said, according to a transcript of the interview.
He also mentioned his son becoming “flustered under pressure” and “not really thinking straight”.
“I don’t want him to fight anybody, but they just keep like pinching him and touching him,” he told investigators in May 2023.
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School shooting suspect previously investigated
But ultimately the case was closed after neither Colt nor Colin Gray were successfully linked to the Discord account the threats were made from.
There were no grounds to confiscate the family’s guns either, according to police reports released by the sheriff’s office.
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Colin Gray bought his son an AR-style rifle as a gift after the pair were questioned, law enforcement sources told NBC News.
On Friday a judge ruled that the teenager would not face the death penalty because, as a juvenile, the maximum sentence he can receive is life without parole.
A “very dangerous” British prisoner is among five inmates who have escaped from a high-security prison in Portugal.
Mark Cameron Roscaleer, 39, had been serving a nine-year sentence for kidnap and robbery at the Vale de Judeus jail, about 43 miles (70km) north of Lisbon.
The five men, aged between 33 and 61, fled on Sunday morning and received “external help” from accomplices who provided a ladder which “allowed the inmates to scale the wall”, according to the Portuguese prison service (DGRSP).
Mark Cameron Roscaleer. Pic: Police
Frederico Morais, president of the National Union of Prison Guards (SNCGP), described Roscaleer as “very dangerous” and advised people that if they see him or the other inmates, they should not to approach them.
He also provided details about the escape: “They managed to jump a net because there are no guards to watch the perimeter… put the ladder against the wall and, from there, with a handmade rope, they climbed over the wall”.
Pic: DGRSP
Pic: DGRSP
Pic: DGRSP
The four other fugitives are:
• Fernando Ferreira, 61, Portuguese, serving 25 years for drug trafficking, theft, robbery, and kidnapping
• Fabio Loureiro, 33, Portuguese, jailed for 25 years for extortion, theft, and money laundering
• Rodolf Lohrmann, 59, Argentinian, sentenced to 18 years and 10 months for theft, robbery, and money laundering
• Shergili Farjiani, 42, originally from Georgia, given a seven-year term for violent crimes theft and forgery
Fugitives are “very dangerous”
According to the Portuguese newspaper, Jornal de Notícias, the group had the help of three accomplices outside the jail and fled the scene in two cars, a Mercedes and a Volvo.
Luis Neves, national director of the Judicial Police, told the paper that, with the exception of Shergili Farjiani, all the prisoners were “very dangerous” and their escape was “very well prepared”.
Vale de Judeus jail is a high-security prison about 43 miles (70km) north of Lisbon. Pic via Enex
Pic via Enex
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Hermínio Barradas, president of the Association of Chiefs of the Prison Guards Corps (ASCCGP), also described the group as “well equipped” and “determined” but blamed weaknesses in security.
He said: “There have been no watchtowers for nine years. The cameras filmed everything, but there was no ability to react because of the lack of prison guards.”
According to both the ASCCGP and SNCGP prison unions, there were 20 guards on duty – half of what would normally be expected – to oversee more than 500 inmates.
The Portuguese prison service said in a statement that an internal investigation had been launched.
Sir Keir Starmer has described his first official visit to Ireland as a “moment for reset” in relations between the UK and its closest neighbour.
He met Irish Taoiseach Simon Harris at Farmleigh House, the official state guest house, in Dublin on Saturday – becoming the first British prime minister to visit the Republic of Ireland in five years.
It comes after Mr Harris became the first international leader hosted by Sir Keir after he entered Downing Street following Labour’s election victory in July.
During a roundtable in the afternoon, the two leaders discussed the framework for an annual trade and cooperation summit between Ireland and the UK.
They said they had agreed the themes and structure of the first summit in March 2025, to be held every year thereafter.
“There’s a huge amount of bilateral trade between our countries. That was why this is such an important relationship,” Sir Keir said.
“Our economy, our markets, are intertwined and have been for a very long time. So, the foundation upon which we base this reset, I think, is strong.”
The two leaders walk in the grounds of Farmleigh House, the official Irish state guest house in Dublin. Pic: PA
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The Irish premier described the prime minister’s visit as a “really great honour”, adding that the time they had spent together so far was “really appreciated”.
The two men “both wish to really place British-Irish relations on a new path”, he said.
Sir Keir replied: “It’s a pleasure to be here, to have this opportunity that we will take to renew the friendship between our two countries. That reset, I think, can be meaningful, it can be deep.”
Top of the agenda on his first visit as prime minister was trade across the Irish Sea – a relationship worth €100bn (£84bn) a year that makes up thousands of jobs.
The prime minister signs the official Irish state guest book in Dublin. Pic: PA
Sir Keir said he is also seeking a “wider EU reset” with other leaders in the bloc, and wants a “closer relationship with the EU”, following on from recent visits to Berlin and Paris.
He talked about the importance of “reducing the friction” between UK and Irish businesses post-Brexit and that of cooperation on defence and security.
The international conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East will likely be discussed too – as protesters against UK arms sales to Israel gathered in Dublin city centre on Saturday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the two leaders will have meetings with various Irish businesses over the weekend – including Accenture, Keelings, and Primark, to encourage further trade and investment.
Football shirt swap ahead of Ireland game
Back at Farmleigh House, nine-year-old Freddie Munnelly, who received medical treatment in the UK, presented the two leaders with Irish and English football scarves.
The prime minister was also given an Irish football shirt with his name on it – while the Taoiseach was presented with an England jersey bearing his name.
Sir Keir Starmer and Irish Taoiseach Simon Harris exchange football shirts in Dublin on Saturday. Pic: PA
The two men will attend the England v Ireland England Nations League football match at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin this evening.
Sir Keir commented: “It will make an appearance in my nine-a-side. This will be proudly worn in north London before too long.”
After shouts of “can we have Declan Rice back?” from a member of the public, Sir Keir replied: “No, absolutely not. He is fantastic.”
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