Rains destroy 2,455 houses across Darfur

A total of 2,455 houses in camps for displaced persons have been destroyed by heavy rainfall across Darfur states over the past days, namely in Central, South, and North Darfur.Sunday night rain and flood destroyed more than 2,000 houses in Ronga Tas camp of Central Darfur. A sheikh of the camp told Radio Dabanga that “torrential rains left people without any shelter, food or medicine.”He appealed to humanitarian organisations and the UN to provide urgent aid to those affected, including tents and plastic sheets.The camp for displaced El Salam, near Nyala in South Darfur, saw rain “sweeping away houses, furnitures, and food.”Sheikh Mahjoub Tabaldiya reported to Radio Dabanga that residents of El Salam are living in the open without food. He is asking aid agencies to “immediately intervene and rescue the affected people and provide them relief.”Zamzam camp for displaced in North Darfur had 180 houses destroyed as a result of rainfall. A sheikh told Radio Dabanga the the newly displaced, especially the ones from Labado and Muhajeriya in East Darfur, are the most affected.“Rain and flood washed away their homes, and destroyed their clothes and food, besides leaving behind pools of water which will facilitate the breeding of mosquitoes and flies as the autumn comes.”The sheikh is demanding that pools are drained and that organisations provide mosquito nets for children and their mothers.On Sunday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that about 150,000 people have been affected by flooding in Sudan this year so far.News photo by Nafeer Sudan Related: 874 houses collapse in South Darfur camp killing 14 people (12 August 2013)