Millions More Under Threat in Sudan

Millions More Under Threat in Sudan
Red Cross warns rising water levels of rivers threaten millions of people in eastern Sudan as rains still falling. GENEVA - Millions more people in eastern Sudan are under threat from disastrous floods along the river Qash, which has risen by another two metres (6.6 feet) in a day and shows no sign of abating, the Red Cross warned on Friday. Marie-Francoise Borel, a spokeswoman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the floods were moving into other regions, fuelled by continuing torrential rain upstream. "The rains are still falling in the Ethiopian and Eritrean plateaus and it's an extremely worrying situation because we have potentially millions of people threatened by rising water levels," Borel told journalists. "In some cases the 1988 levels have been exceeded and that year was one of the worse in the last century for Sudan," she added. Sudanese authorities said on Monday that at least nine people died in the floods in the eastern city of Kassala, which was declared a disaster zone after 21 of the city's 24 residential zones were swept away over the weekend. The Red Cross said 450,000 people live in Kassala. As the situation worsened, aid was being flown into the country including stocks of tents and supplies in Amman which had been prepared for the Iraq conflict earlier this year, Borel said. The Federation on Tuesday launched a preliminary appeal for 1.9 million Swiss francs (1.4 million dollars) to finance aid for Sudan, but Borel said the appeal was likely to be increased. Sudanese authorities have warned that the situation could worsen by mid-August, urging communities along both the Nile and the Blue Nile to make contingency plans for flooding.

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