Sudan declares state of emergency as it fails to handle flood situation
Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) – Sudan’s highest security body has declared a three- month state of emergency in the country to handle unprecedented flash floods and inundations that left hundreds dead and thousands homes levelled with the ground.
The Security and Defence Council announced early Saturday that after assessing the situation and listening to detailed report about the flood situation has declared a state of emergency throughout the country for three months.
It also said the Sudan would be considered a “natural disaster area” after the government reached a conclusion it could not handle the situation by its own.
The decision followed a meeting held Friday night by the Security and Defence Council in the Republican Palace.
The state of emergency was declared by the council after reviewing reports on the floods and standing on size of the human losses and material damage that affected 16 states of Sudan, and resulted in the death of over a hundred people and injury of dozens others.
The council brings together the cabinet and the Sovereign council, the collective presidency.
The council said 16 out of the country’s 18 states have been severely affected by the flood, with over a 100 thousands families left without shelter, and over half a million people affected.
The rains and floods that poured onto the country have not been seen during the last hundred years, the official news agency quoted meteorology officials as saying
Already three states -- Khartoum, the Gazira and White Nile -- had declared a state of emergency and considered themselves disaster areas.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has just flown in 100 metric tons of relief material, including 16,000 blankets, 16,000 plastic sheets and nearly 6,000 sleeping mats.
Beside the local population, UNHCR said an estimated 85,000 internally displaced and 40,000 refugees along with thousands of their Sudanese neighbours have been affected, particularly in East Sudan, White Nile, Darfur and Khartoum, “many in urgent need of shelter and other emergency assistance.”
-0- PANA MO/AR 5Sept2020
