Sudan declares state of emergency over deadly floods

Sudanese authorities declared their country a natural disaster area and imposed a three-month state of emergency across the country after rising waters and heavy rains killed about 100 people and flooded more than 100,000 homes since end of July.

The announcement was made on Friday evening after a meeting of the country’s Security and Defense Council, led by a senior government official, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan.

Floods caused by heavy seasonal rains, mainly in neighboring Ethiopia, caused the Nile River to rise by some 17.5 meters in late August, the highest level it has reached in about a century according to the Sudan Ministry of Irrigation. .

The ministry said the water levels of the Blue Nile are higher than the 1988 flood levels that destroyed tens of thousands of homes in various parts of Sudan and displaced more than a million people.

Labor and Social Development Minister Lina al-Sheikh said the floods killed about 100 people, injured at least 46 people and affected more than 500,000 people across the country. More than 100,000 houses across the country collapsed in whole or in part, he said.

The UN humanitarian agency has warned that the situation is expected to worsen in the coming weeks, as above-average rains are forecast through the end of September.

The capital of Khartoum has been hit hard in the last two weeks. Residents in various districts of the city were seen raising barricades and other shields as the water of the Nile swept through several neighborhoods, in images circulating online.

The military deployed troops to help evacuate people and build barricades in Khartoum, as well as to distribute food, after the floods, they blocked roads and razed houses and belongings.

Earlier this week, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said that access to clean water, which is critical amid the coronavirus pandemic, has also been reduced, and floods have destroyed or contaminated some 2,000 water sources.

OCHA said last week that the floods also damaged at least 43 schools and 2,671 health facilities across the country, and that large tracts of farmland across the country were also flooded in the middle of the harvest season.

The UN refugee agency, or UNHCR, said tens of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons were affected, especially in North Darfur province, where 15 people died and 23 others went missing.

OCHA urged greater support from the international community, as a $ 1.6 billion humanitarian plan for Sudan is less than 44% funded and aid stocks have been “rapidly depleted.”

Seasonal rains and floods last year killed a total of 78 in 16 of Sudan’s 18 provinces between July and August, according to the UN.

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