Five drown in eastern Sudan flood

Five people died in a flood in Hameshkoreib, eastern Sudan, on Wednesday. The water from El Gash river crashed into and destroyed hundreds of houses.

Three of the people who drowned were students and the fourth person was an elderly woman, Saif Haroun, a witness, told Radio Dabanga.

He said that more than 835 houses in Hameshkoreib, the northern locality of Kassala state, are destroyed while over 700 houses are partially damaged. Large parts of local buildings and government institutions broke off.

The flooding of El Gash river has swept and cut off the road that connects Hameshkoreib with the national road to Port Sudan and Kassala since Thursday morning. Saif Haroun added that the organisations that work in the field of relief aid have provided items to the affected people on Wednesday night, but they remain homeless.

Hails in North Darfur

In Darfur, dozens of farmers in Tawila locality in North Darfur were injured as a result of huge hails accompanied with heavy rains on Wednesday.

An activist from the area told Radio Dabanga that the torrential rains accompanied with hail caused head injuries to dozens of residents. He reported that they were transferred to the health centre of Doctors without Borders in Tawila.

Parts of Blue Nile, Kassala, Khartoum, the states of Kordofan and Darfur have been affected by the heavy rains and floods, according to the UN's humanitarian office (OCHA). An estimated 42,850 people have been affected so far, according to the Government of Sudan, SRCS and partners.