Germanwatch

South Sudan (8) suffered because of abnormally severe flooding following heavy rainfalls lasting from June 2019 until the end of the year. These affected over 900 000 people; 620 000 of whom required immediate humanitarian assistance. The floods damaged 74 000 hectares of cultivated land, which amounts to a loss of over 70 000 metric tons of cereal.⁴⁹ South Sudan required US$ 61.5 million to respond to immediate flood-induced damage.⁵⁰ Despite the floods, bush fires intensified and spread due to strong winds and hit four villages in South Sudan’s Western Bahr el Ghazal region, causing 50 fatalities and injuring over 60 more people.⁵¹ The fires destroyed 138 houses and killed 10 000 cattle.⁵²

Heavy rains caused massive flooding in Niger (9), mainly in the regions Maradi, Zinder and Agadez. The Niger River reached an alarming water level of 640 centimetres (the normal level being 550 centimetres), damaging houses as well as various crops and hydro-agricultural developments.^{53 54} The floods were responsible for 57 fatalities and over 16 000 destroyed houses, affecting more than 210 000 people – of which 123 000 were children.⁵⁵

Bolivia (10) suffered due to wildfires that destroyed two million hectares of forest and grassland with almost half of the losses being protected areas with high biodiversity. It is estimated that the regeneration of the local ecosystem will take about 300 years.⁵⁶ Furthermore, Bolivia experienced heavy rainfalls and flooding throughout the year. In April 2019, 79 of the 338 municipalities were under a state of disaster and 25 were under a state of emergency. In total, 34 people died and over 23 000 families became homeless.⁵⁷ In January 2019, the Isiboro River near Gundonovia stood at 9.35 metres – about one metre above the danger mark.⁵⁸