Emergency teams in Sudan are frantically searching for the missing after the collapse of the Arbaat Dam in eastern Sudan triggered devastating floods, worsening the country’s humanitarian crisis amidst a brutal civil conflict that has spanned over 500 days.
The Arbaat Dam, which gave way on Sunday, has claimed at least 30 lives, with fears that dozens more could still be unaccounted for.
The tragedy comes amid a relentless rainy season that has brought unusually heavy downpours, striking earlier and with more intensity than in previous years.
Sudan, already gripped by one of the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises, has seen the delivery of vital aid hampered by both the floods and the ongoing war between General al-Burhan’s army (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
“Before the dam collapsed, people were already stranded by the floods, unable to receive supplies from Port Sudan. Now, with the roads submerged, the situation is even worse,” said Mohamed Othman, a village leader in one of the flooded areas. “Children are starving, and we’re cut off from help.”
In Arbaat, a lone excavator is serving as a makeshift ferry, transporting people and essential food supplies across the floodwaters.
Nationwide, around 118,000 people have been displaced, with over 300,000 affected by the floods, which have demolished homes and triggered outbreaks of waterborne diseases like cholera.
Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), stressed the difficulty in assessing the full scale of the disaster. “We still don’t know how many people remain unaccounted for in Arbaat. It’s incredibly challenging to get reliable information from the region,” he said.
In Darfur, where the conflict has severely limited access to humanitarian aid, flooding has compounded the crisis by cutting off food deliveries. A crucial supply convoy from the World Food Programme (WFP) was recently prevented from reaching Kreinik, a famine-stricken town, after a bridge was washed away by the rains.
Meanwhile, in North Darfur, WFP reported that some shipments had successfully crossed the al-Tina border for the first time since mid-July, though flooding remains a significant barrier.
Elsewhere, in Tokar, Red Sea state, over 500 households were displaced by the floods as residents waded through rivers that have engulfed their homes.
Heavy rains continue to batter parts of Northern Sudan, with social media flooded with images of collapsed roofs and waterlogged neighborhoods. However, the full extent of the damage remains unclear as official reports trickle in slowly.
