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Torrential floods sweeping through Sudan’s Nile State have claimed over 30 lives, leaving thousands stranded and desperate for aid.
Officials report that the swelling Blue and White Nile rivers have swallowed entire neighbourhoods, demolishing hundreds of homes and deepening an already critical humanitarian crisis.
Survivors recount a harrowing night — walls trembling, waters raging, and families scrambling through darkness as their homes and farmlands vanished beneath the flood.
“We were surprised by the floodwaters,” says Ramadan Ali. “We were asleep, and at around 1:30 in the morning, the floods arrived. We woke up, we couldn’t find a way to combat this massive amount of water. The amount is massive and we couldn’t battle it late at night. But we are currently working to drain it. Our situation is truly terrible, really terrible. Everyone here is suffering right now, honestly.”
A severe shortage of equipment and resources has crippled local attempts to curb the destruction, as relentless rains continue to block roads and delay rescue operations in low-lying communities.
Flooding has also battered several other states — including Blue Nile, Al Jazirah, and the capital region, Khartoum.
In River Nile State, angry residents insist the catastrophe was preventable, blaming poor planning and neglected infrastructure for the scale of devastation.
“Heavy rains fell, but planning errors by the Abu Hamad locality, in River Nile State, are the cause of this disaster,” says Abdul Sami Hussein. “They planned animal pens and shops in the floodwaters, and these people ended up in the floodwaters, and what we see happened.”
Sudan’s Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation had earlier warned that six states, including Gezira and Khartoum, faced a high risk of Nile flooding this year. Authorities have urged residents in flood-prone zones to remain vigilant and take every precaution.
Meanwhile, Egypt — grappling with its own floods in the Nile Delta — has blamed Ethiopia, claiming that the newly operational dam on the Blue Nile, near Sudan’s border, is worsening water levels downstream. Addis Ababa, however, has dismissed the accusation, insisting the dam has actually mitigated the flooding rather than caused it.
