Sudan: Scores dead and thousands homeless since start of rainy season

Flooding in Sudan in recent months has left scores of people dead and thousands homeless as seasonal torrential rain engulfs large parts of the country.

Seventy-seven people have died since the beginning of the rainy season in May, Brigadier General Abdul-Jalil Abdul-Rahim, the spokesman for Sudan’s National Council for Civil Defence (NCCD), told the Associated Press on Thursday.

Abdul-Rahim said the provinces most affected included North Kordofan, Gezira, South Kordofan, South Darfur, and River Nile.

An NCCD report on Sunday said 136,000 people across 12 of Sudan's states had been affected by the heavy rainfall since May. 

Homes destroyed

The report said torrential rain and floods had destroyed around 8,900 houses and damaged a further 20,600 across the country.

Earlier this week, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the number of people and localities affected by the seasonal rains as of Sunday had doubled compared with the same period last year.

Around 314,500 people were affected across Sudan during the entire rainy season in 2021, according to the UN.

Torrential rains usually fall in the east African country from June to October, causing severe flooding every year, wrecking properties, infrastructure, and crops.

In 2020, flood water swelled the Blue Nile, which joins the White Nile in Khartoum, to its highest level since records began over a century ago.