Written by Tayeb Siddiq
ARBAT, Sudan (Reuters) – Emergency teams were racing against time on Tuesday to find out how many people were missing after a dam in eastern Sudan burst its banks, unleashing the worst flooding to devastate a country already ravaged by 500 days of war.
The collapse of the Arbaat Dam on Sunday killed 30 people and possibly dozens more, the latest in a series of floods across the country as this year’s rainy season hits harder and in places earlier than in past years.
War-torn Sudan is already suffering from the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises, and the floods have hampered aid deliveries that were already disrupted by a conflict between the military and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
“Even before the dam burst, people were trapped by the floods and couldn’t get anything from Port Sudan. The aid that is coming now can’t reach the people,” said Mohamed Osman, a leader of one of the flooded villages.
“Children are hungry and roads are closed”
One excavator transported people and food across the water on the Arbat.
Some 118,000 people have been displaced across the country and more than 300,000 people have been affected across the country, as floods have destroyed homes and spread diseases including cholera.
“We don’t know how many people are still missing (in Arbaat). It’s very difficult to get information from there,” said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
In Darfur, flooding has prevented food deliveries, including the first shipment of supplies from the World Food Programme to the famine-threatened Kerenik area since the Adre border crossing was reopened to humanitarian workers.
A local volunteer said the bridge leading into the city, where thousands of displaced people are sheltering with little food, was destroyed by the rain.
The World Food Programme said on Sunday that the first shipments since mid-July were able to reach North Darfur through the Tina border crossing after being halted by flooding there.
In Tokar city in Red Sea State, at least 500 families were displaced as of Sunday, with people wading through rivers between damaged homes.
Heavy rains overnight hit several parts of northern Sudan, with images on social media showing collapsed roofs and flooded neighbourhoods, although there was little immediate official information available on casualties there.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.