UN agency: At least 30 dead after dam collapse in Sudan

CNN
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At least 30 people have died after a dam burst in northwestern Sudan, the UN humanitarian agency said, adding that hundreds more are believed to be missing, Reuters reported.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), flash floods destroyed 20 villages and damaged another 50 on Sunday after the Arbaat Dam burst, with an estimated 50,000 people “seriously affected” by the disaster.

In the villages of Khor-Baraka and Tukar, residents were reportedly forced to flee for safety reasons, OCHA reported, citing local authorities. The final death toll could rise significantly, it added.

Images from Agence France-Presse (AFP) show trucks buried under mud and rubble, some loaded with boxes and personal belongings. Other vehicles are barely visible on the muddy river bank.

A local resident who lived near the dam, Moussa Mohamad Moussa, described in another video obtained by AFP how “the dam broke and … the water swept away about 40 people.”

“In the area where I come from, in the Tabub area, I was told that all the houses and everything else had been washed away,” he said.

Another resident, Ali Issa, said in a photo that he helped rescue families, elderly people and children trapped in their cars as the flood swelled. “We came to the area to see the situation, but we could not reach the Arbaat dam because there was so much water there,” he said.

According to initial reports, the dam broke due to torrential rains, OCHA said. The reservoir behind it was then “completely drained”.

The dam supplies fresh water to Port Sudan, the country's fifth-largest city, about 38 kilometers southeast.

OCHA said the destruction was likely to worsen the humanitarian situation in Red Sea state. In recent months, aid groups have warned that Sudan was on the brink of collapse and famine after more than a year of civil war.

Sudan's Federal Health Minister Dr. Haitham Muhammad Ibrahim pledged immediate humanitarian assistance, including the provision of basic medicines and medical personnel, during his visit to the region on Sunday, a statement from his office said. He also promised to provide funds to support evacuation efforts.

On Monday, The commander of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and head of the Sudan Transitional Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, visited Tokhar, an area devastated by the weekend storms but spared from the dam failure, the council said in a statement. Footage posted on X by the council shows Al-Burhan speaking to residents of the town, about 170 km south of Arba'at.

The region around the Arbaat Dam is plagued by humanitarian problems. According to the United Nations International Organization for Migration, nearly 240,000 displaced people live in the region.

OCHA said it was liaising with partners such as the United Nations Children's Fund, the WASH Cluster and local authorities to reach out to communities affected by the collapse.