Sharjah 24 – Reuters: Surging waters have burst through a dam, wiped out at least five villages and left an unknown number of people dead in eastern Sudan, officials said on Monday, devastating a region already reeling from months of civil war.
Torrential rains caused floods that overwhelmed the Arbaat Dam on Sunday just 40km north of Port Sudan, the de facto national capital and base for the government, diplomats, aid agencies and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
"The area is unrecognisable. The electricity and water pipes are destroyed," Omar Eissa Haroun, head of the water authority for Red Sea state, said in a WhatsApp message to staff.
The dam was the main source of water for Port Sudan, which is home to the country's main Red Sea port and working airport, and receives most of the country's much-needed aid deliveries.
"The city is threatened with thirst in the coming days," the Sudanese Environmentalists Association said in a statement.
Officials said the dam had started crumbling and silt had been building during days of heavy rain that had come much earlier than usual.
Some people had fled their flooded homes in five devastated villages and headed to the mountains where they were now stranded, the health ministry said.
On Monday, the government's rainy season taskforce said 132 people had been killed in floods across the country, up from 68 two weeks ago. At least 118,000 people have been displaced by the rains this year, according to United Nations agencies.
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