Severe flooding this month in Sudan has displaced tens of thousands of people, destroyed crops and aggravated the precarious food supply situation, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Wednesday, cited by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
The rains follow two consecutive years of serious drought. Heavy rains falling in the Blue Nile catchment areas of the Ethiopian highlands have left many villages and settlements submerged.
Water levels in the Nile are reportedly higher than 1988, when the river burst its banks causing massive destruction, according to the FAO statement.
The worst-affected areas are the northern and eastern parts along the Nile, including areas around Khartoum. South Darfur state has also suffered from flash floods due to torrential rains.
The humanitarian situation in the affected areas is reported to be critical and there is an urgent need for international assistance to rescue stranded people and provide them with food, drinking water, medicines, and other assistance, the FAO said.
Sudanese authorities said Friday they were bracing for the possibility of severe flooding, expected this week, in the capital.
More than one billion cubic meters (35 billion cubic feet) of water was expected Friday to sweep into Khartoum, where the Blue and White Nile rivers converge, said the irrigation and water resources ministry.
"More than one billion cubic meters of water are expected to arrive in Khartoum today (Friday) morning in Khartoum," Malik Bashir, the rapporteur of the emergency room at the ministry of housing and public utilities in Khartoum state, was quoted as saying.
He said the government had provided dozens of trucks and excavators to help raise embankments, as well as pumps to drain rising water.
"The situation, however, is not reassuring and I call upon the citizens and the concerned quarters to exert efforts to overcome the stage of danger," Bashir was quoted as saying.
The fast-moving, muddy water of the Nile rose by some 2.6 cm (more than an inch) in Khartoum from Wednesday to Thursday, with the floods expected to climax some time next week.
On Monday last week, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) appealed for 1.3 million Swiss francs ($772,400) in contingency funding in case the Nile floods Khartoum, said Reuters.
The Associated Press reported that UN agencies were gearing up to provide assistance to thousands of Sudanese flood victims.
"They are saying water levels are one meter (yard) higher (in parts of Sudan) than they have been for 20 years," Hamayun Rathor, UN resident coordinator in Khartoum, was quoted as saying, "Some villages have already come under water."
Rathor said in a telephone interview that it was too early to know how much damage the floods had caused. He said UN agencies would meet Saturday to assess the situation and make preparations to deal with outbreaks of disease, which are expected to be caused by the floods.
Separately, the Abhara River in northern Sudan has also flooded homes there, while the seasonal Rahad River in Gedaref state has overflowed its banks for the first time in decades, reaching nearby villages.
So far there have been no casualties – Albawaba.com
