December 23, Nairobi — Hundreds of families have been displaced from the White Nile State, after flooding completely submerged their towns and homes.
The flooding comes after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized the Jebel Aulia Dam, around 40km from Sudan’s capital Khartoum. The dam regulates the flow of the White Nile, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile. The RSF constructed a bridge over the dam’s navigation gates, which was not designed to bear the weight of heavy vehicles. Now, they have allegedly completely closed the dam.
Water levels have allegedly “surpassed all previous records,” acting minister of infrastructure Al-Tayeb Mohamed Al-Hassan told The Sudan Tribune. There are now fears the dam will completely collapse.
Sources told Darfur24 that the flood destroyed large areas of land and crops, which could affect the food security of the region. The floods were also resulting in an increase in cholera cases.
The United Nations reported that 40 households were displaced across Geziret Aba village of Rabak locality last week. The floods displaced families who were living in four schools serving as shelters.
There have been intense clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and RSF this month in the White Nile state. The renewed violence has triggered a mass exodus to South Sudan, with over 20,000 arriving per week.