2nd August, 2014
More than 3,000 homes have been destroyed by floods that hit almost half of Sudan’s states over Ramadan and the Eid Al-Fitr holidays, official media said on Saturday.
“Twenty-two districts in eight states were affected by flooding and heavy rain,” the SUNA news agency reported, citing the federal health ministry.
There were 184 injuries during the deluge which affected around 6,100 families, about half of them in Nile and North Kordofan states, SUNA said.
Homes in the capital Khartoum were also inundated when rain and high winds lashed the region last Tuesday night and on July 25 at the start of the rainy season.
Among the victims were more than 3,000 residents of Jaborona, near Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, said Kabi Jeremiah, humanitarian attache at the South Sudanese embassy.
Shelters housing South Sudanese there have been destroyed, he told AFP on Thursday.
“That one is washed away,” he said.
Residents tried to move their meagre belongings to dry ground while they manually dug out channels to drain the water, Jeremiah added.
Thousands of impoverished South Sudanese have been living in rough shelters in Jaborona and numerous other outdoor settlements in the Khartoum area.
They have been waiting in vain for assistance to travel to South Sudan after the country’s independence three years ago.
Flooding in Sudan in August last year affected up to half a million people and killed 50.