This photo shows buildings near the Arabat Dam, 40km north of Port Sudan, which collapsed following heavy rains and torrential flooding on August 25, 2024. | Photo credit: AFP
Floods have caused a dam to burst in eastern Sudan, destroying at least 20 villages and killing at least 30 people, but possibly many more, the United Nations said on Monday (August 26, 2024). The civil war continued for several months.
Torrential rains caused flooding which submerged the Arabat Dam on Sunday just 40 km (25 miles) north of Port Sudan, the de facto national capital and base for the government, diplomats, aid agencies and millions of displaced people.
“The area is unrecognisable. Electricity and water pipes have been destroyed,” Omar Eisa Haroun, head of the Red Sea state water authority, said in a WhatsApp message to staff.
A first responder said 150 to 200 people were missing.
He said he had seen the bodies of gold miners and pieces of their equipment destroyed by the floods, and compared the disaster to the devastation in the eastern Libyan city of Derna in September last year, when stormwater burst dams, sweeping away buildings and killing thousands of people.
Aid supplies and people are carried onto an excavation machine following devastating floods in Port Sudan on August 26, 2024. Photo Credit: Reuters
on Monday on Arbat street Reuters The reporter saw people burying a man and covering his grave with wood so that it would not be swept away in a landslide.
The UN, citing local authorities, said the floods affected the homes of about 50,000 people, adding that this number only applies to the western area of the dam as the eastern area is inaccessible.
The dam was the main source of water for Port Sudan, home to the country’s main Red Sea port and functioning airport, and the source of much of the country’s essential aid supplies.
“The city is at risk of thirst in the coming days,” the Sudanese Environmentalists Association said in a statement.
Crumbling infrastructure
Officials said the dam had begun to breach and silt had begun to accumulate due to heavy rains, which had arrived much earlier than usual.
Even before the war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Forces began in April 2023, Sudan’s dams, roads and bridges were already in disrepair.
Both sides have devoted a large portion of their resources to the conflict, leaving infrastructure badly neglected.
The Health Ministry said some people fled flooded homes into the mountains, where they are now trapped.
On Monday, the government’s rainy season taskforce said 132 people had died in flooding across the country, up from 68 two weeks earlier. At least 118,000 people have been displaced by this year’s rains, according to United Nations agencies.
The conflict in Sudan began when competition between the army and the RSF (which had previously shared power following a coup) escalated into open warfare.
Both sides were trying to protect their power and broader economic interests, as the international community promoted plans for a transition to civilian rule.
Despite attempts at a ceasefire, including Saudi and US-led talks in Jeddah, fighting has not abated and half of the population of 50 million are without adequate food.