Dozens Killed in a New Wave of Floods in Three States

Dozens of people have died in the latest wave of heavy rains and floods across three states in northern Sudan.

According to a statement from the Marawi locality in Northern State, at least three people were electrocuted to death, and homes collapsed on them due to the floods and heavy rains.

The Ministry of Education in Northern State suspended classes at all educational levels until further notice to ensure students’ safety following the heavy rains accompanied by flooding that continued from Monday night until Tuesday morning.

The Marawi locality’s statement indicated that the rains led to the closure of the Karima-Dongola road and caused damage to several villages. Several villages in the Dongola, Aldaba, and Marawi localities have issued distress calls after floodwaters inundated homes and agricultural lands.

In the Nile River State, local sources told Al-Jazeera that rains accompanied by winds caused the death of a woman and injured two others in Abu Hamed locality in the far north of the Nile River State.

About three weeks ago, record rains and floods hit Abu Hamed, killing 35 people.

In the Red Sea State in northeastern Sudan, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a press release that a government delegation from the Red Sea State reported that the collapse of the Arbaat Dam, about 38 kilometers northwest of Port Sudan, resulted in the deaths of about 30 people, with the actual number of victims likely to be much higher.

The OCHA office mentioned that the government delegation, comprising the emergency department of the Ministry of Health and the Humanitarian Aid Commission in the state, reported that about 70 villages around the Arbaat Dam were affected by the sudden floods that destroyed twenty villages.

It added that among the 13,000 families (about 65,000 people) living west of the dam, homes of approximately 10,000 families (about 50,000 people) were destroyed or damaged, in addition to the destruction or damage of 70 schools and the loss of 10,000 livestock. Additionally, 84 wells collapsed, likely affecting water supplies to Port Sudan.

It said that severe damage occurred to infrastructure, including water, electricity, telecommunications networks, and roads.

The report noted that these damages are limited to villages west of the Arbaat Dam, while no assessments have been made for villages east of the dam due to difficulty accessing them.

According to the Executive Director of the Kinan and Olib localities, Mohammed Ali Idris, in a press statement, the Civil Defense Police deployed reinforcements from water surface teams equipped with rescue equipment to evacuate people stranded by the waters of the Arbaat Dam in five villages.