The World Health Organisation (WHO) has deployed a rapid response team to South Sudan following the deaths of almost 100 people to an unidentified disease.

The worst flooding parts of South Sudan have seen in 60 years

The WHO task force has reportedly been sent to Fangak, Jonglei State, to begin a risk assessment and collect samples for testing.

“We decided to send a rapid response team to go and do risk assessment and investigation, that is when they will be able to collect samples from the sick people – but provisionally the figure that we got was that there were 89 deaths,” she said.

A local health official said initial samples collected in the area returned negative test results for cholera, the BBC reported.

Ms Baya said the team had been unable to reach the area due to floods - which are considered to be the worst in 60 years - and are awaiting a helicopter to return them to the capital, Juba.

International charity Médecins Sans Frontières, which operates in the area said the flooding had already left thousands of people displaced, with the lack of food, water and sanitation measures placing people at risk of outbreaks of disease.

“We are extremely concerned about malnutrition, with severe acute malnutrition levels two times the WHO threshold,” the charity said on November 23.

“The number of children admitted to our hospital with severe malnutrition doubling since the start of the floods.”

Earlier this month, the WHO outpost in South Sudan had flagged flooding in parts of Jonglei had destroyed drug stocks and “increased the burden of malaria, diarrhea and other diseases”.