Flooding this week in Kassala state, northeastern Sudan, has destroyed an estimated 680 houses, leaving about 3,000 people homeless and killing four people.
The river Gash, which flows from Eritrea and runs through Kassala city, flooded its banks due to heavy rains which started on Monday, Guadalupe de Souza of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Khartoum told IRIN.
On Wednesday, the situation became "critical", she said, adding that water levels in Eritrea remained high on Thursday, leaving little hope for relief in Kassala.
De Souza said there was no water or electricity in the town, and communications systems were down. A hospital in the city also had to be evacuated, while the homeless were forced to shelter in local schools.
Three ambulances of relief items, including medical supplies, were being sent to Kassala by road by the government, UN agencies and NGOs in Khartoum on Thursday. On Friday, an air and road assessment was planned to establish the full scale of the damage and the numbers of casualties, she added.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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