The Sudanese Security and Defence Council declared a national state of emergency for three months as a result of floods that have killed 99 people, and damaged or destroyed more than 100,000 homes, state news agency SUNA reported on Saturday, September 5, 2020. The Council also designated Sudan a natural disaster zone. A state of emergency is an extreme condition of national danger or disaster caused by severe weather, war or epidemic in which a government allows itself special powers beyond normal constitutional procedures in order to deal with it. The floods caused by torrential rains have also injured 46 people, and affected over 500,000 people this year, Suna quoted Labour and Social Development Minister Lena Al-Sheikh as saying. Al-Sheikh indicated that the rate of floods and rain in 2020 has exceeded records set in 1946 and 1988, and is expected to continue an upward trend. Last week, the United Nations’ refugee agency said that an estimated 125,000 refugees and internally displaced people have been affected by the floods, with “many in urgent need of shelter and other emergency assistance”. In m mid-August 2020, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan reported that at least 14 schools have been damaged across the country, and more than 1,600 water sources have become contaminated or non-functional. Flooding regularly hits Sudan in summer, but this year’s unprecedented water levels have left larger tracts of farmland submerged, caused landslides and damaged infrastructure. The average level of the Blue Nile has reached 17.43 metres, the highest since the country started measuring in 1912, Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas said on Thursday. Blue Nile waters would continue to rise in the coming days, said Abdelrahman Sughairun, head of the ministry’s flood committee. The committee warned on Friday the country may face more rains, adding that the water level in the Blue Nile rose to a record 17.58 metres. It is to note that Sudans rainy season begins in June and continues through to October, which means the country experiences floods and torrential rains annually.
