At least 30 people have been killed following the collapse of a dam in Sudan’s northwest Red Sea State, according to the United Nations’s emergency relief agency. Hundreds more are believed missing, Reuters reported.
Flash flooding decimated 20 villages and damaged a further 50 after the Arba’at Dam collapsed Sunday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. It estimated 50,000 people had been “severely affected” by the disaster.
In the villages of Khor-Baraka and Tukar, residents were reportedly forced to flee for safety, OCHA also said, citing local officials. It added that the final death toll could rise significantly.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) footage of the aftermath shows industrial trucks buried in mud and debris, some laden with crates and personal belongings. Other vehicles are almost unrecognizable on the silty riverbank.
One resident who lived near the dam, Moussa Mohamad Moussa, described in another video from AFP how “the dam broke and… the water swept away around 40 people.”
“In the area where I’m from, the Tabub area… they told me that all the houses and everything was swept away,” he said.
Another resident, Ali Issa, was pictured saying he had helped to rescue families, elderly people, and children who were trapped in their cars when the floodwaters rose. “We came to the area to check out the situation but we couldn’t reach the Arba’at Dam because there was so much water,” he said.
Initial reports indicated torrential rains had caused the dam to breach, OCHA said, adding this had resulted in the reservoir behind it “being fully drained.”
The dam facility supplies fresh water to Port Sudan, the country’s fifth largest city, which is about 38 kilometers (23 miles) to the southeast.
OCHA said the damage was expected to worsen the humanitarian situation in Red Sea State. In recent months, aid agencies have warned Sudan is on the brink of collapse and starvation following more than a year of civil war.
Sudan’s Federal Minister of Health, Dr. Haitham Muhammad Ibrahim, promised emergency humanitarian assistance including the provision of basic medicines and medical personnel during a visit to the region Sunday, according to a statement by his office. He also committed to provide resources to support evacuation efforts.
On Monday, Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) chief and head of the Sudanese Transitional Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan visited Tokhar, an area devastated by the weekend’s storms but unaffected by the dam collapse, according to a statement from the council. Footage posted to X by the council shows Al-Burhan speaking with residents of the town, roughly 170km south of Arba’at.
The region surrounding the Arba’at Dam has been wracked with humanitarian challenges. The region hosts nearly 240,000 displaced people, according to the United Nations International Organization for Migration.
OCHA said it is liaising with partners, including United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund and WASH Cluster and local officials to reach communities affected by the collapse.