Sudan hit hard by floods

The torrential rains have caused major disruption and damage in Sudan’s El Gezira, Northern State, and the Red Sea state. Many houses have collapsed in floods and infrastructure has been damaged. In other regions, water levels have reached dangerous heights as well.

In El Gezira, multiple villages have flooded or are under direct threat of flooding, including El Edej, El Nebti, and the villages of Sheikh Mekki, Edd El Nour, and El Hamedenab.

In a press statement in Wad Madani yesterday, Director Police Brig-Gen Gurashi Abdelgadir of the National Emergency and Disasters Department of the Civil Defence Administration reported that the torrential rains caused the collapse of houses in villages of Edd El Nour and El Hamedenab and damaged houses in urban areas in El Wehda and in Rawa in the eastern part of El Gezira.

Civilian witnesses estimated that more than 12,000 residents of those areas are facing extremely dangerous humanitarian conditions because the floods caused the closure of important roads that lead to the neighbouring towns on which they depend for food, health services, and other vital services.

They pointed out that most of the houses in those villages have either completely collapsed or are so unstable that they are no longer suitable for shelter.

Northern State

In the Northern State, surveys reported that more than 600 houses collapsed completely or partially.

Director-General of the Northern State’s Ministry of Health and Social Development Abuzar Mohamed Ali briefed the Red Crescent Society on the flood damage in the state yesterday.

In the meeting, he explained that Gokul village in Delgo was flooded, roads were damaged, water and electricity supplies were interrupted, and eight houses collapsed completely whilst 11 others were severely damaged.

Eastern Sudan

Heavy rainfall in Jabit in Red Sea state on Tuesday caused great damage to a number of neighbourhoods. An initial report revealed that 46 houses collapsed, 193 were damaged, and five communal latrines collapsed.

In Kassala, the levels of the El Gash River reached a record high. Acting governor El Tayeb El Sheikh developed plans to take advantage of the large quantities of water to provide of drinking water for humans and animals in the area and store water for irrigation for the El Gash Agricultural Project.

The governor appealed to the people in the area to cooperate with the technical teams and direct the water into the right paths to ensure beneficial water storage and avoid dangerous flooding.

Water levels

The Flood Committee announced that the level of the Nile River in Khartoum exceeded 17.12 metres yesterday, 62 centimetres above flood level. The committee demanded that necessary precautions should be taken now to protect people and property in the state.

The committee further stated that the revenue of the Blue Nile at the Sudanese-Ethiopian border amounted to 628 million cubic metres, while the revenue of the Atbara River at the Sudanese-Ethiopian border amounted to 336 million cubic metres.

The highest increase was recorded at the Merowe reservoir yesterday and amounted to 799 million cubic metres, compared to 780 million cubic metres the day before. The Upper Atbara and Setit rivers recorded 332 million cubic metres yesterday, compared to 290 million cubic metres the day before.