Death toll from Sudan floods reaches 136

By Al Mayadeen Net
Source: Agencies
19 Sep 09:06

The number is expected to increase as floods continue to batter Sudan.

Death toll from Sudan floods reaches 136

The death toll from floods that hit the country has reached 136, Sudanese Civil Defense Council spokesman Abdul-Jalil Abdul-Rahim said on Sunday.

"The number of victims of floods in Sudan has increased to 136 people. Most people drowned or died as a result of the collapse of houses, or electric shock. The largest number of victims occurs in the North Kordofan province in the central part of the country," the Spokesperson said.

Heavy rains frequently fall between the months of May and October in the northern African country.

Of the 120,000 houses that were severely damaged by the floods, 54,000 were completely destroyed.

The losses are recorded to be over 2,150 heads of livestock and over 12,100 feddans (about 5,100 hectares) of agricultural damage by floods.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that more than 136,000 people had been affected by the floods in the month of August. In 2021, about 314,500 people were severely affected by the floods, while between 2017 and 2021 on average 388,600 people have been affected annually.

The UN also predicted the forced displacement of 460,000 Sudanese by the end of 2022, the highest figure to be recorded in years.

As the climate crisis is exacerbated, there is scientific evidence that poorer countries are more likely to be hardest hit by the effects of climate change - although they make less contribution to the emission of greenhouse gases.

A report published by Oxfam studied 10 of the world’s worst climate hotspots impacted by drought, floods, severe storms, and other extreme weather conditions and found their rates of extreme hunger in the past six years had more than doubled, with proof that they are linked to the climate crisis.

Most of the aforementioned countries are severely hit by drought, especially those in Africa. So far, Somalia has been suffering from the worst drought forcing 1 million people to flee, while 2.5 million livestock has died in Kenya and 2.4 million people are starving.

Niger's cereal production has fallen by 40% due to extreme weather, leaving 2.6 million people in acute hunger, while Burkina Faso's desertification of crop and pasture land has driven more than 3.4 million people into severe hunger.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that "floods, droughts, heatwaves, extreme storms, and wildfires are going from bad to worse, breaking records with alarming frequency."

Guterres considered that "there is nothing natural about the new scale of these disasters. They are the price of humanity's fossil fuel addiction."

The upcoming COP27 UN climate talks are due to take place in Egypt in November in which global government leaders will be pressed to plan drastic cuts in greenhouse gases, alongside requesting that wealthy countries be asked to provide financial aid for poor countries to adapt to the effects of the climate crisis.