South Sudan has long been plagued by disasters exacerbated by climate change, such as recurring droughts and floods. Now the extreme heat is forcing the world’s youngest country to close its schools.

Authorities have ordered schools across the country to remain closed since Monday due to a wave of excessive heat that is expected to last at least two weeks. Temperatures are expected to reach 113 degrees Fahrenheit, well above the 90-degree highs that typically occur during the dry season from December to March.

Officials did not say how long schools would remain closed. However, the health and education ministries said in a joint statement that “any school open during this period will have its registration revoked.”

Parents were also urged to keep their children from playing outside and monitor them for signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

Oppressive temperatures in South Sudan, whose tropical climate includes both dry and wet seasons, are interrupting the start of the academic year. Most schools in the East African country, particularly outside the capital Juba, are overstretched and underfunded, and lack infrastructure such as air conditioning to cope with this heat.

South Sudan is highly exposed to severe climatic events, including droughts, Floods and rising temperatures. These changes have exacerbated displacement, food insecurity and communal conflict in the country of 11 million, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011.

The heatwave is also expected to put pressure on the country’s nascent health system, which has long struggled with limited funding and labor shortages.

South Sudan is not the only African country where extreme weather events have caused school closures. In 2022, Malawi’s government shortened the school day in the southern Shire Valley due to rising temperatures. And in Uganda, severe floods have repeatedly forced the government to do this Close schools over the years.

But there are conflicts in South Sudan, a worsening humanitarian crisis and a tense political environment have made mitigating the turmoil of climate change even more difficult.

Civil war in South Sudan has killed around 400,000 people and displaced millions more since 2013. And although a weak political agreement There has been a growing humanitarian crisis between the country’s feuding leaders in recent years deadly divisions between forces within the ruling alliance have added to uncertainty over whether repeated postponed elections will take place this year.

At the same time, The war in neighboring Sudan has forced the return of almost half a million South Sudanese who had fled conflict in their own country. Many have returned to towns and villages where their homes and farms have been looted and are finding it difficult to rebuild their lives.

Emmanuel Lokosang, the principal of Jada Jedid Kindergarten and Primary School in the capital, said he hoped the weather would cool down soon so students could resume classes.

“Juba is really hot,” Mr. Lokosang, whose school has more than 600 students, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday morning.

He added: “We hope they don’t delay too long, because the more we delay, the more it impacts the academic calendar and how we can restore the curriculum.”