>> ♪ ♪ >> today, david not reporting from south sudan. the humanitarian crisis and a region on the brink. because this is a very common sight here after four years of relentless rain. this is a tiny piece of land completely surrounded by the waters here. an island in and of itself and these are the families that have stayed behind to continue to raise their children here. >> climate change and historic flooding. the children at risk. because mothers are feeding their children water lily spirits >> it is a coping mechanism because they do not have enough food. >> abb just 40 days old weighing less than 4 pounds. >> how dire the situation on the ground here in south sudan?

>> malnutrition is huge. it is huge. there is no food. there is no food. because the humanitarian workers trying to save lives. because they literally depend on us to stay alive. >> with aid stuck because of a deadly conflict breaking up to the north. the need for help even more urgent. the mother is determined to feed their families. >> you have all helped with the spirit speak of the fist bump, the children smiles. their songs. the faces of hope. this special edition of "nightline," children of the water. david muir reporting from south sudan. we'll be right back. for people who are a little intense about hydration. neutrogena® hydro boost lightweight. fragrance-free. 48-hour hydration.

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>> good evening tonight from south sudan where you are about to witness an urgent race against time. aid workers on the grant will tell you in a region known for conflict, they are up against a war they cannot win. a changing climate. the extremes here becoming more extreme. the drought and the flood waters. this is the only road in and the only reason it is dry as because of the mud walls holding the floodwaters back. tonight, the excruciating journey to get to the family is now cut off private farmland is now under water.

the way they say you are keeping these families alive. we land in south sudan where we are told there is an urgent effort to get to more than 1 million people in desperate need. the u.n. trucks waiting. we had out to the world group program traveling down the only road in carrying aid from sedan. we are there because the last convoy makes it in from sudan before the deadly violence breaks out to the north bay with mud walls holding water back and then the only way to get to so many of the families here is by boat. what's happening here is a staggering. climate change making the extremes here, the drought and floods, only more extreme. four years in a row now of historic flooding. water is unable to recede. this is a very common sight here after four years of relentless rains. this is a tiny piece of grand

completely surrounded by the waters here, an island in and of itself and these are the families that have stayed behind to continue to raise their children here. what do they feed the children here with no land to farm on anymore? we are told the water lilies and then we see her, a mother in the distance. the haunting sounds, the coffin, the quiet splashing of the water, the determined work and stagnant, dangerous floodwaters. the water nearly to her chest, reaching down to pull out the water lilies and other bulbs. this mother waiting down so far. she is nearly underwater herself. it is what they do for their children in this mother who probably shows the bulbs to us. they dry them and pound them into paste to feed them to their children. mothers are feeding their children water lily spirit >> unfortunately, they are. it is a coping mechanism because they do not have enough food.

>> how do they get any food? >> there is a biggest challenge that they are facing here and the availability of food before they had land where they could cultivate food, but now they are completely cut off. >> family is cut off with so little land and no livestock. it's just a stunning sight to see the cows out here in the middle of the water. this used to be farmland before the floods. the livestock, it is impossible to know how much has been lost during this floods but you can see that nothing but skin and bones, these cows here. still searching for something to eat and basically marooned out here in the middle of the water. we meet three siblings o on the water. >> what do you have? they tell us they have gathered grass and sticks. because they are saying they're trying to take them to town so they can sell it. >> what will people use it for? >> she is saying that they are

going to use them to construct their homes. >> and they are bringing it to what most people are on the other side of the dike hoping to sell it for people building homes. on the other side of the flood. we make it to one of the islands. the children at the water's edge. many of them with bellies that signaled the emergency. the woman who greets us with a smile. hello. we had to find the makeshift clinic here. we are told that the families on this island who have come to the nutrition center for help and you can see the mothers and their children here. they are waiting to be screened but they have all brought their children here for help. this little boy among the children here, a hint of a smile. all of them waiting for help. >> women bring their children here. >> the head of nutrition for the world food program here in south sudan. because the nutrition assistant will now measure the child's upper arm. because they are trying to

determine the level of malnutrition. because he is marking the child's arm to get the midpoint of the upper arm. speak of the mother her baby who is just one run. what did you find? malnourished. we ask her how did she feed her child before today? what are you able to feed your child? >> she is saying that they only feed her water lilies. >> she tells us she is great for her is getting help. we are glad too, yes. we learn here that the children most at risk have been brought here to the state hospital in bentu. children on the brink of starvation. the nine year old boy drinking water. slowly falling back down onto

his bed. we learned of the young mother, her baby just 40 days old, a little more than a month weighing less than 4 pounds. you must be relieved that your baby is doing much better. >> she is saying yes. >> yes, she says. her newborn son and his tiny grip. a sigh of hope here. these children, they say, at the innocent victims of climate change. do you think it's because of the climate change? >> that is what i can say. >> the land has changed. speak of the land is over rated. the land is flooded. there is no area of cultivation and that is because of the climate change. >> he tells me the lack of food is overwhelming here. how dire the situation on the ground here in south sudan? >> malnutrition is huge.

it is huge. there is no food. there is no food. >> you are the one helping to save the children. >> at the moment, yes. >> out on those tiny slivers of land, they look for the children most at risk. she now works for the world food program. what do you make of the change in climate? >> it's only a few weeks of rain a season. as it is, it's all flooded everywhere. >> and you haven't even begun wet season, rainy season. because the rainy season is only two weeks? three weeks to now. >> we are on the front lines of climate change. >> i think there is no question. this is the front line. this is where we are seeing the change. it's not just one extreme event. >> monitors the change in climate for the world program. >> after one year, you might think you can come back and start again.

after four years of cumulative flooding, i think people are starting to think that this is a long-term change. >> have you ever seen anything like this. >> no. i never imagined anything quite at this scale. the scientists and researchers with the u.n. have studied the wet season growing more extreme here. from 2019 to 2020, the waters that did not recede and then 2021, 2022 and this is now. this is the wetlands have tripled in size and just four years. the amount of land erased by the water here is stark. >> for about 5% to 12 to 15% of the entire territory of the country. because that's an astounding figure. >> it is. because i just say temperatures in this region are rising at double the global rate, making both the droughts and flooding e acute. the extremes are only growing more extreme. the wet season is wetter periods erar pf the country

that are becoming private and the victims of all of these are innocent south sudan >> less than 10% of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide and yet they are paying a devastating price. we see it. the people here know what's coming again in just weeks. we witness an extraordinary scene. the women building a mud wall by hand, a dike toward any new flood waters back. to try to reclaim some of their land. they are up against overwhelming challenge and yet still, a smile on this woman's face. when you look at the effects of climate change here, how does it get better? >> ion't know if it get better.

climat and i have been in south sudan 41 half years and there are parts of this state that we came in a boat that i used to walk on. i don't know if it gets better. the only way it can get better is that we receive more assistance. >> if you look over my shoulder here, you can see the very top of somebody's hut where a family once lived and want to recognize. you can see it peppering the landscape here, the water's edge. home after home completely destroyed. in fact, the water is so deep in some places the world food program uses amphibious vehicles to get to communities hardest to reach. we traveled with them as they passed by old villages no longer period when we finally get that, hours into this journey, the children running toward us. then, we see something unexpected. when we come back. detect this:

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>> on the ground in south sudan, we see it. the ravaging effects of climate change. a mother doing laundry at the waters edge. the flood waters, they say, will only worsen in the coming weeks. the boy collecting water to bring back to one of the camps for families displaced by the floods. even the water carries great risk. this used to be a police post now under water. the boys heading out to get fish floating in the water in a

container, now serving as their boat. tonight, the only road in from sudan, they bring the aid, is now in trouble too. the deadly conflict that broke up to the north while we were there has not stopped. tonight, more than 600 people have now been killed and we have now learned a u.s. citizen is among the dead. tonight, the pentagon is now sending more troops into the region. if an evacuation at the u.s. embassy is urgently needed, right now u.s. workers are sheltering in place an administration official tonight telling abc news it is now too volatile to evacuate. explosions, the gunfire, and the damage at the airport in the capital city. you can see the planes destro destroyed. among the dead, three aid workers with the world food program. we were on the ground in south sudan with their colleagues when we learned of the news .

tonight, in south sudan, they have great concern about the 7,000 tons of aid now halted, stuck to the north and sudan because of the fighting. even before the fighting broke out, they were already worried about this one road in private with the world food program. her job as logistics, making sure there is a way in. >> this brought is cut off, we will be in a very bad situation. they literally depend on us to stay alive. >> now, there is an urgent push to get what aid they do have in place. before the wet season starts in just weeks. >> in a race against time to reposition the food before the rainy season starts because of weak at prepositions the food, then people will be on the brink of starvation. >> even before the deadly fighting in the north, worries here on the ground in south sudan about whether the mud walls would hold with the

new rain coming. the walls of art on each side of the road, that's your only hope in keeping the roads passable? >> exactly. they are completely surrounded by water all the time so the base has become weak. because the children here standing in front waters that will soon rise again. even they know what's coming. they are survivors. we learned something else being done here to try to adapt to these impossible conditions. the mothers, proud of their ingenuity. they are not pulling road weeds from the water, what are called water hyacinth. they are not transforming it into small pieces of charcoal. they now have something other than wood which is now so difficult to come by to cook on. works for the world food program. he helps the families here find solutions. >> the they are basically burnig it. >> now you see they are burning it and when we haveochexyn cinnt

of a certain type of play that we ferment f days like dough pretty much. we mix it and we press it and we leave it to dry under the sun. >> this, they will use to cook with? >> yes. because it's actually taking something that you've got to get rid of anyone trying to make it productive. >> completely, he appeared because we ask whether the mothers, how much a small invention like this will help. this is what one told us. because she is saying that it's a great invention now that all routes are gone in the water. >> wonderful. >> we see first and there is great pride here and what they've done. because you have all helped with ry p ofheck onur journey, severl

hours in, those amphibious vehicles making it one of the islands for the start. we immediately see the children running toward us. something unexpected. we hear the children's voices. the singing under the tree. these are the school children here this is where they now hold that class. >> a, b, c, d, e. >> you see them sitting on metal parts, cans, buckets. the children are always the most resilient. we witnessed it everywhere we went there with the little girl and her fist bump. all of the children. these little smiles and waves, this is what keeps the aid workers going here. the children still learning,

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>> the aid workers here on the ground tell me t >> the aid workers here on the ground tell me they fear with conflict elsewhere on the ground that the families, the children of south sudan will be forgotten. if you would like to help out, you can go to wfpusa i'm david muir in south sudan and from all of us here at "abc news nightline," good night.