A dam collapses in eastern Sudan after heavy rainfall and local media report dozens missing

CAIRO (AP) — A dam collapsed in Sudan’s eastern Red Sea state, sending water flooding over nearby homes, the country’s health ministry said. Local media said dozens of people are missing.

In a statement late Sunday, the ministry said that the Arbaat dam had collapsed and that resources had been deployed to the area to help the people who had been stranded.

The statement said at least four people had died in the floodwaters but did not give an estimate of how many were missing. However, a local official told the Sudanese news site Al-Tagheer that he believed there to be at least 60 dead. Amr Eissa Taher, the head water resources official for the Red Sea state, said the damage was extensive.

The Sudanese news outlet Medameek, citing the country’s air force, reported more than 100 people were missing, and that many other villagers had climbed to rocky hilltops to avoid the rising waters.

The dam, in a remote area 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Port Sudan, supplied drinking water to the Red Sea city.

Many of the country’s top officials and civilians have fled to Port Sudan from the capital Khartoum since a brutal conflict broke out in the country in April 2023. The war, pitting the country’s military against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, has thrown Sudan into a humanitarian crisis.

The top military general traveled to the Red Sea province on Sunday. In a video released by the military on social media, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan walked through muddy plains next to valleys filled with floodwaters and met with first responders.

The war has wrecked civilian infrastructure and an already battered health care system. It has killed thousands of people and pushed many into starvation, with famine already confirmed in a sprawling camp for displaced people in the wrecked northern region of Darfur.

More than 10.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes since fighting began, according to the International Organization for Migration. Over 2 million of those have fled to neighboring countries.

Most recently, a cholera outbreak, fueled by flooding and poor sanitation facilities, has killed at least two dozen. In the month since the first suspected cases of cholera were reported, more than 650 cases and 28 deaths have been reported in five states, the World Health Organization said Friday.

WHO said an initial cholera vaccination campaign in Kassala in eastern Sudan has reached more than 50,000 people. It said more than 450,000 additional doses of oral cholera vaccine are in the pipeline to be delivered.

Sudan’s dams help it manage heavy seasonal precipitation in a largely desert climate. The Arbaat dam, some 34 kilometers (22 miles) from the Red Sea, was built for holding spring and rainwater and its reservoir had a capacity of 25 million cubic meters, according to the news site Al-Tagheer.

The dam burst on Saturday night following heavy rains, according to local media reports. Information has been difficult to gather in the area due to mobile network outages.