Official warns floods now “out of control”

Sudanese officials said on Monday they were struggling to complete evacuation of 99 islands on the Nile before they are submerged by the river’s rising waters, news agencies reported. The ‘Al-Watan’ newspaper reported on 18 August that authorities were trying to evacuate inhabitants from the islands in the northern Abu Hamad Province, but that operations were being hindered by further heavy rains. Provincial Commissioner Al-Khayr Ahmad Abu Zayd was quoted as saying the flood situation in the province had “gone out of control”, and that 1,500 people made homeless by flooding there were living without shelter. The IFRC on Monday again appealed for medicines, food, and shelter to help the thousands of people across Sudan made homeless by the floods. An international appeal launched 10 days ago in Geneva had so far met with a disappointing response, with only a few boxes of medicines having arrived in the capital, Khartoum, the BBC said.