Flood waters threaten Khartoum city

The United Nations system said on Thursday that the rising water level of the Nile was now threatening to flood parts of central Sudan, including the capital, Khartoum. In its latest situation report on the floods, the UNOCHA said the rising waters of the Blue Nile remained the "main concern", since they were heading downstream towards the Sudanese capital. The BBC reported on Friday that on the island of Tuti, a low-lying part of the city, residents had been forced to start a 24-hour watch of the Nile. The IFRC has made an initial appeal for US $750,000 to support ongoing relief work for flood victims should the Nile burst its banks in Khartoum. Sudan was facing heavy flooding in several parts of the Nile river system and flash floods in North, South and West Darfur, the White Nile states and Khartoum, according to OCHA. Since the beginning of August, water levels had "exceeded all projections", it said. The report added that flash floods in Kass province, western Sudan, had affected six villages and forced 1,149 families to abandon their homes. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that the flooding in Sudan - and especially around Khartoum, at the confluence of the White and Blue Nile rivers - was linked to heavy rains in the Ethiopian highlands. There was "a need for early warning systems and regional cooperation" regarding rainfall and flood potential, he said. [ Sudan UNOCHA situation report ]