Mother dies in Chad, classrooms collapse in Darfur downpours

A Sudanese refugee mother of four drowned in a flash flood in eastern Chad on Saturday, while rains have destroyed more than 15 classrooms in Kalma camp for the displaced in South Darfur. Mubarak Said Ahmed told Radio Dabanga that his mother, Khadijah Ibrahim Mohamed (31) from Gaga refugee camp in eastern Chad, was returning to the site after tending her agricultural lands. She was swept away by a flash flood following torrential rains that have fallen in the area. She is survived by three more children. Similar seasonal rains and floods have destroyed more than 15 classrooms at Kalma camp for displaced persons in South Darfur, disrupting lessons for many of the camp’s students. Speaking to Radio Dabanga on Friday, the director of education at the camp, Abdullah Mohamed Suleiman says that Unicef, the organisation in charge of the education programme at the camp, has provided some plastic sheets, but “refused to perform maintenance on the grounds that the organisation only performs maintenance on fixed-construction buildings. The government only apologises on the grounds that it has no budget for schools for the displaced”. Suleiman said he has met with the director of Unicef and asked him to build new permanent classrooms: “The camp needs to construct 400 new classrooms to accommodate 27,645 pupils,” he said, appealing to international organisations and charitable entities to assist in the construction and building of schools for the displaced children. File photo by Nafeer Sudan Related: SPLM-N urges Khartoum to declare state of emergency in Sudan (14 August) Sudan opposition criticises Khartoum’s ‘inability’ to deal with rain (13 August 2013)