Floods affect 40,000 families in Sudan: Red Crescent

More than 40,000 families have been affected by the recent floods in Sudan, while burst rivers caused the destruction of more than 21,000 houses.

The Sudanese Red Crescent Society announced the figure of 40,620 families on Monday. The organisation's secretary-general Osman Jaafar Abdulla told the press that so far, nearly 49 per cent of the affected people have received aid, and he expects the aid distribution to increase.

The Sudanese authorities said earlier that more than 100 people were killed by rain and flash floods. Mid-August, the most-affected areas were South Darfur, Kassala, Sennar, and West Kordofan. Flooding occurs annually in Sudan during the rainy season that lasts from June to September/October.

About 1,400 volunteers have monitored the wave of heavy rains and the extent of the damage through field surveys, Jaafar said. He added that his organisation provides assistance to the affected population directly and not through any government agency, pointing the aid is being distributed with high level of transparency.

Numbers of the death tolls and the damage by the heavy rains have started to emerge in the past week as local governments and residents have been able to assess the situation. El Gezira state reported the deaths of 26 people and the complete or partial collapse of almost 5,000 homes.

The United Nations' humanitarian office (OCHA) reported last week that an estimated 161,700 people were affected, while rains and floods destroyed about 14,700 houses, and damaged another 10,800 homes in many parts of Sudan.