Floods in Sudan hit capital hard, over 90 dead nationwide

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Rising flood waters have hit Sudan’s capital of Khartoum hard in recent days, as weeks of heavy flooding countrywide left at least 90 people dead and destroyed tens of thousands of homes, the country’s Interior Ministry said Sunday.

Sudan’s military said it deployed troops to help evacuate people and build barricades in Khartoum as well as distribute food, after flooding there cut roads and swept away houses and belongings. Footage circulated online showing residents of Khartoum erecting barricades and other shields as water from the Nile River swept through several districts.

Flash floods have ravaged swaths of Sudan including the capital since late July, injuring around four dozen people and damaging or destroying 57,000 houses countrywide, the Interior Ministry said.

More than 380,000 people in all but one of Sudan’s 18 provinces have been affected by heavy rainfall and flooding since the start of the rainy season in July, according to official statistics.

Most of the affected families were forced to seek shelter with relatives and host communities, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The flooding also damaged at least 43 schools and 2,671 health facilities across the country, the UN agency said. At least 2,000 water sources have been contaminated or are now non-functional, it said.

Also late last month, seasonal rainfall and flooding caused the collapse of the Bout Dam in the southeastern Blue Nile province. The collapse released 5 million cubic meters of water and flooded at least 13 neighbourhoods in the town of Bout, the UN said.

Between July and August last year, flooding killed a total of 78 people in 16 of Sudan’s 18 provinces, according to the UN.

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