Sudan declares state of emergency over floods

Khartoum

Sudan's Security and Defence Council has declared a state of emergency for three  months over floods caused by heavy rains and the swelling Nile.

After a meeting late Friday, chaired by Sovereign Council Chairman Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the Security and Defence Council  determined the potential of the floods to become a bigger a natural disaster requiring urgent attention.

The meeting by Sudan’s top decision making organ formed a supreme committee to prevent and address the effects the rains. It will be headed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, and have membership of  all ministries, states and agencies with competence to coordinate and employ resources and integrate local, regional and global roles.

So far 99, people have been killed and 46 others injured because of the heavy rains. Over 100,000 houses collapsed.

Minister of Labor and Social Development, Lina Al-Sheikh, said “the size of the human losses and material damage show that  16 states in Sudan have been affected.

“More than half a million people  have been directly affected, and more than 100,000 homes have been totally or  partially destroyed,” Lina said.

Sudan's Irrigation and Water Resources Ministry earlier said that the Nile River has registered unprecedented levels at most of the upper sources.

According to official statistics, the Nile River's flood water this year is higher than that of 1946 and 1988, when it flooded to threatening levels. The rainfall has reached 17.43cm so far, more than the 17.10cm recorded in 1946.

A special cabinet meeting held on Friday evening approved raising a recommendation to the Security and Defence Council to declare a state of emergency in the country to ward off the effects of torrents and floods.

The Flood Committee, affiliated to the Ministry of Irrigation, announced that the flood discharge at the Al-Dim station on the Blue Nile in the Sudanese borders has exceeded by about 91 million cubic metres, while the water level in the capital (Khartoum) has exceeded the level of flood disposal by 9 centimetres, as a result of heavy rains in the Ethiopian plateau.