Sudan flood victims need urgent aid

The Darfur Displaced and Refugees General Coordination urges international humanitarian organisations to support the displaced who lost their homes and belongings in the heavy rains and floods of the past two months.

Many displaced are still living rough. They urgently need aid, community leader El Shafee Abdallah told Radio Dabanga from Zalingei in Central Darfur. All the people in the camps for the displaced suffer from shortages of food, drinking water, mattresses, and mosquito nets, he added.

He reported very high incidence rates of malaria and diarrhoea among the displaced. Medicines are only available at high prices.

He appealed to international humanitarian organisations to intervene. He also called on the transitional government to facilitate the activities of these organisations in the country.

Sudan's worst floods in 30 years have seriously affected large parts of the country. Six weeks ago a three-month State of Emergency was declared.

UN agencies have reported 155 fatalities, more than 875,000 affected people (at least 150,000 of them refugees and displaced people), 82,500 completely destroyed houses, some 92,600 damaged houses, thousands of damaged health facilities, and over 560 damaged schools.

On September 11, the government of Sudan requested assistance with regard to water, sanitation, hygiene, shelter and health care through the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM).

In March 2009, following his indictment by the International Criminal Court, ousted President Omar Al Bashir expelled 13 aid organisations working in Darfur from the country. Other INGOs had to downsize or suspend operations. In the following years, the activities of relief organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were suspended. Following the ousting of the Al Bashir regime, the new government allowed the expelled organisations to resume their work.