Sudan Floods Killed More Than 80 People since July

By Staff, Agencies

Floods triggered by seasonal torrential rains in Sudan have killed more than 80 people and damaged or destroyed some 35,000 homes since July, a senior police official said Monday.

Flooding has killed 84 people and injured another 67 since the start of the rainy season, said police Brigadier General Abdul-Jalil Abdul-Rahim, spokesman for Sudan’s National Council for Civil Defense.

Fourteen of Sudan's 18 provinces have been affected by the rains, which have demolished more than 8,000 houses and damaged at least another 27,000, Abdul-Rahim said. The eastern provinces of River Nile and al-Qadarif were hardest hit, he added.

Abdul-Rahim noted that people who lost their houses have been taken to shelters close to their neighborhoods, where they have been receiving humanitarian aid from local non-governmental organizations.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said that 102,000 people have been affected by the rains across the country.

Between September 4 and 6, over 61,000 people, including 35,000 South Sudanese refugees, were affected by the flooding in 53 villages in the White Nile province’s Aj-Jabalain district, the UN said.

The UN complained that the flood response in some affected areas has been delayed despite the rising number of people affected.

Last year, Sudanese authorities declared the country a natural disaster area and imposed a three-month state of emergency across the country after flooding and heavy rain killed around 100 people and inundated over 100,000 houses.