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More than 1.3 million people have fled Sudan for South Sudan: IOM
Well over 1.3 million mainly South Sudanese people have returned to the country after fleeing Sudan’s ongoing war, the UN migration agency, IOM, reported on Friday, amid rising violence and a massive humanitarian emergency linked to the country’s political crisis.
In an update from Juba, the agency’s Deputy Director for Operations, Ugochi Daniels, stressed that South Sudan is one of the most displacement-affected countries in the world, although the situation rarely features in the world’s media.
“Nearly 10 million people require humanitarian assistance and more than 2.3 million people are displaced within the country,” she told journalists in Geneva via video. “Over the past two months alone, over 250,000 people have been displaced and yet this has hardly been registered on the international scene.”
The development follows an alert on Monday for the people of South Sudan issued by the UN’s top aid official, Tom Fletcher. Ahead of that warning, three aid workers were killed earlier this month in Jonglei and Upper Nile states.
Fighting has been reported in both of those northeastern states between government forces and those loyal to Vice-President Riek Machar, who is on trial for treason and remains under house arrest.
The violent insecurity has severely hampered humanitarian access, with UN aid operations suspended in parts of Upper Nile and northern Jonglei states. In some case, river corridors are being used to deliver food and nutrition relief where needs are greatest.
“We have received assurances of improvements in access, but the reality is that it's fragile,” IOM’s Ms. Daniels said. “There may be access today, not access tomorrow. There’s huge impact on our operations.”
She noted that in Bentiu, the country's largest displacement site, more than 109,000 people live surrounded by floodwaters and are “increasingly exposed” to the impacts of climate change.
To counter this, IOM has supported flood mitigation efforts with the South Sudanese Government and the World Bank which have led to successful land reclamation.
This has allowed people and families to begin rebuilding flood-resistant homes and reconnecting to basic services, the IOM senior official explained.
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South Sudan alert - IOM
TRT: 1 min 51s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 27 FEBRUARY 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Speaker:
Ugochi Daniels IOM Deputy Director for Operations (from Juba)
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide, UN Geneva flag alley.
- Wide, Press room podium speakers, journalists, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ugochi Daniels IOM Deputy Director for Operations (from Juba): “South Sudan remains one of the most displacement-affected countries in the world. Nearly 10 million people require humanitarian assistance and more than 2.3 million people are displaced within the country."
- Medium-wide, Press room podium speakers, journalists, TV screen showing remote speaker.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ugochi Daniels IOM Deputy Director for Operations (from Juba): “Over the past two months alone, over 250,000 people have been displaced and yet this has hardly been registered on the international scene.”
- Wide, Press room, TV screens showing remote speaker, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ugochi Daniels IOM Deputy Director for Operations (from Juba): “We have received assurances of improvements in access, but the reality is that it's fragile. And there may be access today, not access tomorrow. There's huge impact on our operations.”
- Wide, Press room, UN Geneva, TV screens showing remote speaker.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ugochi Daniels IOM Deputy Director for Operations (from Juba): “In Bentiu, I witnessed both vulnerability and progress. It remains the country's largest displacement site with over 109,000 people living in fragile conditions, surrounded by floodwaters and increasingly exposed to the impact of climate.”
- Medium-wide, podium speakers, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ugochi Daniels IOM Deputy Director for Operations (from Juba): “Through flood mitigation efforts undertaken with the Government and the World Bank, land has been reclaimed, allowing people and families to begin rebuilding flood-resistant homes and reconnecting to basic services.”
- Medium-wide, journalists.
- Medium, journalist.
- Wide, participants, control booths, technicians.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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