Rising Blue Nile devastating villages in Sudan

Every village along the Blue Nile from El Damazin until Sennar – a stretch of 200 kilometres – has been affected by floods as the water levels continue to rise.

Ahmed Suleiman Ahmed, MP of El Suki constituency, told Radio Dabanga on Tuesday that the floods have completely destroyed the farmlands on 35 villages. “All their gardens have collapsed, along with the destruction of banana, guava, and mango trees.

Ahmed said that floodwaters have overrun the market in Sennar, three people died, and 2,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed.

In Sennar itself, rains led to the collapse of more than 600 local houses and 2,000 acres of bananas went out of production.

Sennar local authorities asked the residents to stay away from fragile areas and valleys, with new waves of floods expected.

South Darfur

In South Darfur, the Um Berbata Bridge that connects eight southern localities of South Darfur was washed-away by flash floods. This is disrupting commercial movement and traffic, resulting in price hikes for consumer goods in the southern localities including Tullus.

The Commissioner of Tullus, Abbakar Mohammed, said the floods have caused power outages which add to the disruption of the damaged bridge.

The South Darfur state government announced the formation of an emergency room at the Ministry of Urban Planning to intervene in the maintenance of the roads and bridges damaged by floods.