Nearly 900,000 people have been affected by severe flooding in South Sudan, which has also displaced more than 241,000 people, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday.

Flooding continues to affect and displace people across the country,’ OCHA said in a statement.

Heavy rains and flooding have rendered 15 major roads impassable, limiting access to affected people in the country, one of the world’s poorest.

According to OCHA, some 893,000 people have been affected by the floods in 42 counties and the Abyei Administrative Area, whose sovereignty is disputed between Sudan and South Sudan.

More than 40 per cent of those affected live in the northern states of Unity and Warrap, according to the same source.

More than 241,000 people from 16 counties and the Abyei area have been displaced ‘to seek shelter on higher ground’, OCHA said.