PORT SUDAN (Sudan) (AFP) – At least 30 people were killed in northeast Sudan after a dam collapsed due to flooding, the United Nations' humanitarian office has said.
The war-torn country has experienced an intense rainy season since last month, with intermittent torrential flooding mainly in the country's north and east.
"Thirty fatalities have been confirmed" following the Sunday collapse of the Arbaat Dam in Sudan's Red Sea state, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cited a government delegation as saying Monday.
"However, the number of casualties could be much higher," it said, adding that "scores of people are reportedly missing or displaced".
The Arbaat Dam lies about 38 kilometres (24 miles) northwest of Port Sudan, the de facto seat of government after authorities were driven out of the capital Khartoum due to fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
"Up to 50,000 people living in areas to the west of the Dam have been severely affected," OCHA said.
"About 70 villages around Arbaat Dam have reportedly been affected by the flash flooding of which 20 villages have been destroyed," it added.
Sudan's health ministry on Monday said 132 people had died as a result of flooding and heavy rains in 10 states this year, with the heaviest flooding reported in the Northern and River Nile states.
Sudan has been gripped by fighting that broke out in April 2023 between the army, led by de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
Both sides have been accused of committing atrocities and violations, including impeding the delivery of much-needed aid in the ravaged country, parts of which have been gripped by famine.
The impoverished country's infrastructure -- already fragile before the war -- has been decimated, with both sides accused of targeting civilian facilities and active fighting preventing repairs and maintenance.