A dad walked through chest-high waters for two hours to get his 13-year-old son to a clinic in flood-hit South Sudan to receive medical treatment, medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said.
Heavy flooding has affected some 800,000 people in South Sudan, and people are battling to reach medical centres, MSF added.
“In areas where floodwaters are too high to walk, people are using makeshift rafts constructed from plastic sheeting or large plastic water tanks reshaped as canoes, with a shovel for an oar.
“Those who stay to protect their houses use sandbags or mud walls to try to stop the water,” the charity said.
It added that patients who manage to reach MSF clinics sometimes describe a “harrowing journey”.
“When 13-year-old Yoel fell ill, his father Stephen Manyang Chan, a widower and father of five, carried him to the MSF clinic in Leer, Unity State, walking through chest-high waters for two hours.
“There are no roads to the hospital, only water,” MSF quoted the dad as saying.
Source:Fiilafmonline/BBC
