More rains expected in Sudan
2007-07-31 07:26
Khartoum - Massive floods have killed at least six people and displaced more than 10 000 families in southern Sudan for the past few days, say government officials.
The officials raised the alert level ahead of more expected torrential rainfall.
The unusually strong seasonal rains in most of the country had killed at least 41 people so far and destroyed thousands of homes.
United Nations agencies and international aid groups said they were dispatching large quantities of aid, including food, medicine and mosquito nets to prevent Malaria, to endangered populations.
The rains were reaching record levels and had caused mudslides that destroyed the homes of more than 10 000 families on the outskirts of the capital, Khartoum, where the White and Blue Niles met to form Africa's largest river.
600 cattle killed
According to the officials, high waves swept six people off the banks of the Blue Nile in the town of Damazin in the border zone between northern and southern Sudan.
Deng Chul Deng, the acting commissioner for the province, said in Renk, a town on the White Nile in southern Sudan, floods "totally destroyed 1 518 huts and killed at least 600 cattle, affecting at least 4 729 families, including 2 027 children".
He said there were also 23 cases of watery diarrhoea, a life threatening disease for children that was caused by poor hygiene conditions. Deng said: "But the situation is contained for now."
It was reported that whole villages had been wiped away by the rising waters in southern Sudan, and flood refugees in various regions across the country had been calling for help on national radio.
Floods were expected to further hit the capital as waters flew in from the south.
Abdul Jaba Hussein, the head of the anti-flooding commission in the capital, said more than 10 000 houses collapsed because of mudslides caused by the floods in the Sharq al Nil neighbourhood, southeast of downtown Khartoum.
He said on Monday that 13 people had died in the Khartoum alone since the rains began.
Authorities began spraying insecticides in the capital on Monday to avert the risk of epidemic diseases carried by mosquitoes and flies that came with the floods.
The price of products such as mosquito nets had more than doubled in Khartoum in recent days as residents feared a malaria outbreak, and people in neighbourhood close to the Nile had stacked sacks of sand along the embankments.
- AP