As Sudan struggles to handle weeks of disastrous flooding, Qatar has announced it would dispatch much-needed emergency aid to the country.
Urgent aid will be sent to Sudan by order of Qatar’s Amir, state news reported on Sunday, as part of efforts to assist the country following weeks of devastating floods.
Details of the relief aid have yet to be announced though it comes after a phone call between Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al Thani and his Sudanese counterpart Abdullah Hamdok.
Sudan has been ravaged by weeks of floods that has so far killed more than 100 people and affected some half a million across the country.
On Sunday, Sudan announced a three-month long state of emergency and declared the country a “national disaster zone”.
More than 100,000 homes have been damaged in the flooding, according to Lena el-Sheikh, the country’s minister of labour and social development, noting this year’s rain and flooding has already broken records from 1946 and 1988.
Sudan’s rainy season traditionally begins in June and continues through to October. This year, heavy rains in neighbouring Ethiopia much of the floods in Sudan and saw the Nile River rising to nearly 17.5 meters at the end of August – its highest level in 100 years, according to the Sudanese authorities.
The United Nations has raced to assist the national response deal with the crisis and has provided emergency shelter and supplies to some 250,000 people affected.
