36 Dead, 5000 Houses Destroyed in Sudan Floods
Flooding has killed 36 people in a region north of Sudan's capital Khartoum, official radio said on Sunday.
"Thirty-six people were killed in Nile state and 5,000 houses were destroyed because of heavy rain and floods," Radio Omdurman reported.
The brief report by SMS did not specify over what time period the fatalities occurred but heavy rains affected Khartoum and the surrounding region again on Friday, following earlier flooding which began on August 1.
Driven by vicious winds and accompanied by lightning, the rain on Friday lasted about four hours in Khartoum, where even modern apartment buildings suffered leaks.
Many Sudanese live in one-room homes built of mud bricks which can easily wash away.
An Agence France Presse photographer on Saturday found the outskirts of Khartoum turned into a lake, where some simple homes had been destroyed or damaged.
Residents whose houses were still standing had dragged their belongings outside, where some sat on beds trying to stay above the brown water.
Before the latest deluge this weekend, the United Nations said heavy rains and flash floods in Khartoum and other parts of Sudan had killed 11 people and affected almost 100,000 others this month.
Source: Agence France Presse
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