Sudan. Two Months of Torrential Rains Kill 114 People



According to ministerial information, 27,278 families - which represents around 110,278 people - have been affected by the torrential seasonal rains in 47 locations in ten states.


 

The health authorities have also reported a rise to 556 cases of cholera, with an increasing number of people suffering from night blindness, malaria and eye inflammation, as fears grow of a collapse in the medical system after 80 per cent of health facilities were taken out of service.


Humanitarian agencies therefore fear that the flooding will increase the risk of outbreaks of these infectious diseases, given the acute shortage of vaccines and access to the affected areas due to the ongoing conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF).


The health department also warned that the heavy rains had destroyed homes and other civilian infrastructure, such as bridges vital for aid access, and cut off supply roads to some states.


The African Observatory of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) forecasts above-normal rainfall throughout Sudan until September.


IGAD has therefore warned that the risk of flooding is above the devastating level of 2020, when at least 138 people died in floods, more than 900,000 people were affected and 2.2 million hectares of crops were damaged, according to United Nations data.


The African country suffers every year from the rainy season, which lasts almost four months from July onwards in a country that has been facing a civil war since April 2023.


The Sudanese conflict has already caused between 30,000 and 150,000 deaths, according to different estimates, and is one of the biggest displacement crises on the planet.