At least 30 killed, dozens missing after Sudan dam collapse
A dam near Sudan’s Red Sea coast collapsed on Sunday and has claimed at least 30 lives, according to the United Nations. The surging waters devastated at least 20 villages. The dam, in a remote area 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Port Sudan, supplied drinking water to the Red Sea city.
Surging waters have burst through a dam, wiped out at least 20 villages and left at least 30 people dead but probably many more in eastern Sudan, the United Nations 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 40 km (25 miles) 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.
One first responder said that between 150 and 200 people were missing.
He said he had seen the bodies of gold miners and pieces of their equipment wrecked in the deluge and likened the disaster to the devastation in the eastern Libyan city of Derna in September last year when storm waters burst dams, swept away buildings and killed thousands.
On the road to Arbaat on Monday a Reuters reporter saw people burying a man and covering his grave with driftwood to try to prevent it from being washed away in mudslides.
Both sides have since funnelled the bulk of their resources into the conflict, leaving infrastructure badly neglected.
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