- At least 50 dead in Sudan floods
Heavy rainfall and flooding in large parts of Sudan have resulted in at least 50 deaths, according to the UN emergency aid organization OCHA.
The current assessment reports that around 143,000 people, mainly in the north and west of the country, have been affected. More than 27,000 people have had to flee the floods - nearly 10,000 in North Darfur, which is currently particularly hard hit by ongoing conflicts.
UN describe this as the world's largest refugee crisis.
For nearly 16 months, a bloody power struggle has been raging in Sudan between the de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. The conflict has triggered what the UN describes as the world's largest refugee crisis, with more than ten million people displaced or having fled, many of them multiple times. The country also faces the threat of famine.
The rainfall has exacerbated the already critical situation, said Kenneth Bowen, country director of Welthungerhilfe in Sudan, to Deutsche Presse-Agentur. "Many roads are impassable. This makes it even more difficult to bring food and other aid to the refugee camps. Food insecurity and critical malnutrition, especially among young children, threatens to worsen."
The heavy rains in Sudan have contributed to the worsening conditions in the ongoing refugee crisis, making it harder to deliver aid to the camps. The international community is closely monitoring the situation as another potential hurricane could further exacerbate the crisis.
