Desperate Dinka people rebuild flood defences by hand each day to stop their homes sinking

Описание: (14 Dec 2025)
ASSOCIATED PRESS -
Akuak Islands, Jonglei State, South Sudan - 8 November 2025

1. Close of bow of boat going through the Nile with view of riverbank on route from Bor to Akuak islands
2. Mid of two men on boat Makech Kuol Kuany (right) Akuak Chief
3. Tracking shot of riverbank and vegetation in the river seen from the boat
4. Wide of hut seen through papyrus
6. Mid of man in water dragging boat near to shore
7. Various of fisherman Anyeth Manyang collecting clay from the riverbed to top up flood defence
8. SOUNDBITE (Dinka) Anyeth Manyang, fisherman and island builder, Akuak community:
“When the water level rises, we use grass and soil in order to build these islands and this is what we have been doing since I was born. My father and my mother taught me how to build these islands and how to fish.”

9. Mid of Manyang using machete to cut the reeds and pack it into the clay to build the flood defence UPSOUND (Dinka) Anyeth Manyang, fisherman and island builder, Akuak community: “This work is very hard. We have to do it with our bare hands. We have to cut the grass, then take the soil from under the water, so it's not an easy job, sometimes we end up very tired and our whole body is in pain.”

10. Various of Anyeth Manyang diving for mud and depositing it on the bank
11. Tilt down from Makech Kuol Kuany, the chief of Akuak community and fisherman Matuor Mabior Ajith, a fisherman watching water creeping close to their homes to wide of river

12. SOUNDBITE (Dinka) Matuor Mabior Ajith, Akuak fisherman and island builder:
“The reason why this water is coming out is that the soil underneath is not compacted well. So there are spaces through which the water can come up, because it is something built by hand. So it will be maintained like the work Anyeth is doing there: he will put some soil on top of it and compact it.”

13. SOUNDBITE (Dinka) Makech Kuol Kuany, chief of the Akuak community:
“To build the islands, we start by spreading grass where we want to raise the ground, then we go and cut papyrus and we level it on top of the grass, and then after that, we put soil on top. This is how to make the ground stronger and higher.”

14. SOUNDBITE (Dinka) Matuor Mabior Ajith, Akuak fisherman and island builder: (in shot with Kuany)
“This is our ancestors' land, and we have been living on it for thousands of generations. So this is our land and we have understood how to live here and how to resist the water, and we don't want to abandon it.”

15. Men playing dominos while the children watch
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Philip Jok Thon, Akuak islands resident and former student:
“Our life it is here, we are just pushing life. I cannot say that our life is good or life is bad. You have seen according how we are staying here. We are suffering and we are not leaving. Because this is our land.”

17. Various tracking shots of river and disintegrating riverbank
18. Tracking shot of water to people including Ayen Deng Duot fortifying the riverbank with reeds
19. SOUNDBITE (Dinka) Ayen Deng Duot, mother of 6 children, who has always lived on the Akuak islands:
“We are doing this every year, because we are staying in a low land. So whenever the water rises with the flooding from the Nile or from rain water, we have to do this to protect ourselves, so that we are not chased away by water.”

20. Wide of Ayen Deng Duot and her family cutting papyrus branches and roots and throwing them onto the shore being constructed
21. SOUNDBITE (Dinka) Ayen Deng Duot, mother of 6 children, who has always lived on the Akuak islands:


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