Floods in Sudan 2020

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The floods in Sudan in 2020 occurred from around the beginning of August 2020. In terms of casualties, the flood disaster is considered the worst in Sudan since at least 1988, and the government declared a state of emergency for all of Sudan .

As of October 6, 2020, more than 875,000 people were affected by the flood disaster. At least 155 people were killed. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, around 166,000 buildings were destroyed at the end of September .

Most of the damage occurred in the states of North Darfur , Blue Nile , West Darfur , Sanner and the capital Khartoum . The places of the former royal city near the pyramids of Meroe are also endangered .

root cause

The disaster was triggered by heavy rains in Ethiopia and South Sudan, which had already started in July. As a result, the Blue Nile reached a level of 17.5 m, the highest level since records began more than 100 years ago.

consequences

According to Welthungerhilfe , the floods in summer and autumn 2020 were the most violent in the previous 30 years. In addition to the loss of human life, residential buildings, farmland and livestock, the floods also destroyed important infrastructure. Among other things, the Bout Dam , which had dammed five million cubic meters of water, broke. This threatens the drinking water supply of around 100,000 people. In addition, around 12,000 latrines were destroyed. It is expected that the full effects of the disaster can only be assessed after a few months. The floods also increased the impact of the 2019/2020 locust plague in East Africa, as many fields were flooded that had previously been spared the locusts.

According to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), around 175,000 houses, arable land and crops were destroyed or damaged by the floods (as of mid-October). While warnings were given in September 2020 of an outbreak of disease from contaminated water and the spread of mosquitoes (which can multiply in stagnant water), an increase in cholera , dengue fever , rift valley fever and malaria was observed in October . Since many roads are also damaged, it is hardly possible to deliver relief supplies to some regions.

In the wake of the floods, the WFP provided more than 112,000 people with emergency food rations. In total, more than six million people in Sudan have been cared for by other WFP operations since the beginning of the year. While around 5.8 million people in Sudan were at risk of hunger in 2019 , the number of starving people in Sudan rose to 9.6 million in the first seven months of 2020, according to the WFP. According to the WFP, well over 10 million people are starving as a result of the floods. The price of Sudanese staple foods such as sorghum is 680 percent above the five-year average , according to the WFP.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Floods in Sudan: At least 65 dead in two weeks . In: RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland , August 17, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b c Sudan experiences the flood of the century . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 18, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  3. ↑ Sudan Situation Report, 8 Oct 2020. In: reliefweb.int . OCHA , October 8, 2020, accessed on October 12, 2020.
  4. ↑ a b Almost 830,000 people affected by floods in Sudan . In: Der Standard , September 25, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  5. ↑ Fritz Schaap interviews Hameed Nuru: Floods in Sudan. "Wherever there is space for people, there they go". Spiegel Online, October 14, 2020
  6. ↑ a b Sudan declares a state of emergency due to floods . In: Deutsche Welle , September 5, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  7. ↑ Sudan declares a state of emergency because of floods . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , September 5, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  8. ^ "Fatal accumulation of extreme weather events" . In: ZDF, September 27, 2020.
  9. ↑ "No recovery between disasters" . In: Tagesschau.de , September 29, 2020. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  10. ↑ " Too little is being done for Sudan" . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , September 23, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  11. ↑ a b c Fritz Schaap, DER SPIEGEL: Floods in Sudan: "Wherever there is space for people, there they go" - DER SPIEGEL - Politics. Retrieved October 14, 2020 .