ALBAWABA - At least 17 people were killed in northern Sudan due to heavy rains that caused buildings and homes to collapse in Sudan's River Nile state.
A Sudanese medic told AFP that the death toll has risen to 17 people and is expected to rise in the upcoming hours. "The power is out in the city and people are spending the night out in the open, dreading more rainfall," he stated.
Until Tuesday, more than 11,000 houses collapsed and approximately 170 people were injured, River Nile state infrastructure minister Samir Saad told reporters.
The impact of torrential Rains is expected to be more severe this year, as the country continues to suffer the consequences of war that has been tearing at Sudan since April 2023.
"Heavy rains caused most of the houses to collapse, and all of the shops in the market collapsed," a witness in Abu Hamad told AFP by phone. Last week, a flash flood killed five people in Port Sudan, on the Red Sea coast.
More than 30 people have lost their lives as a result of severe rains and flooding since July 7, according to Sudan's central emergency operations center on Tuesday.
Rain and flooding have displaced over 21,000 people since June, most of them live in regions already devastated by violence, according to the United Nations.
Aid groups have frequently warned that humanitarian access, which was already restricted by the war, is becoming nearly impossible in rural locations as highways flood.
Sudan is facing what the United Nations has described as the world's greatest humanitarian catastrophe in modern history, with the fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces showing no signs of coming to an end in the near future.
