Dam Collapse Devastates Communities in Eastern Sudan

A dam that collapsed in Sudan near the Red Sea on Sunday flooded surrounding communities and caused an unknown number of deaths and injuries, local and international officials said. The disaster heaped additional misery on a country where millions are already suffering from war and famine.

The Arba’at dam unleashed a deluge of water on the surrounding area, stranding villagers, the Federal Ministry of Health said in a statement.

It was unclear how many people had been killed in the disaster, which occurred after days of heavy rain. OCHA, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said in a statement on Monday that local authorities had confirmed 30 dead but it added that the number was likely to be much higher. A local news outlet, Medameek News, reported on Monday that more than 10 people had been killed.

The OCHA report said that the dam, in a remote area near the Red Sea, was the main source of fresh water for Port Sudan, the country’s de facto wartime capital, about 25 miles to the southeast. The dam is over 530 miles from the capital, Khartoum, which is inland.

According to preliminary reports from OCHA, the bursting of the dam caused its reservoir to empty completely, damaging around 20 villages downstream. The authorities in Sudan reported that up 50,000 people were affected to the west of the dam. OCHA said that damage to communication networks had “made it difficult to gather more accurate information.”

On Monday, video circulated on Facebook that captured rushing floodwaters coming from the direction of the Arba’at dam. The New York Times geolocated the video and confirmed that it was filmed roughly 2.5 miles from the dam. A separate clip from a local television news station showed disabled vehicles partially sunken in deep mud.

Heavy rain and floods have affected approximately 317,000 people across 16 states in Sudan since June, according to a separate OCHA report released Sunday, with 118,000 people displaced.

Sudan has been devastated by war since April 2023, when fighting broke out between factions supporting two rival generals vying for power. Millions of people have been displaced and subjected to starvation as a result of the conflict. Experts made a rare declaration of famine in Sudan’s Darfur region this month.

Abdalrahman Altayeb contributed reporting from Port Sudan, and Arijeta Lajka and Chevaz Clarke-Williams from New York.