ERITREA-SUDAN: Worst floods in decades cause death and destruction

Photo: Caroline Baugh/GOAL

NAIROBI, 12 August 2003 (IRIN) - Eritrea is witnessing the worst floods in 40 years with large swathes of farmland completely destroyed, according to the government. It said the Gash river had burst its banks in the western Gash Barka region last week, resulting in heavy crop losses in and around the main town of Tesseney. Part of the road to the town had been cut off. Wendy Rappeport, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Eritrea which carries out much of its work in the Tesseney area, confirmed that the seasonal rains were exceptionally heavy this year. She told IRIN however that as yet, there had been no reports of damage in the areas where refugees were returning from Sudan. Tens of thousands of returnees, assisted by UNHCR, have been arriving in western Eritrea over the last three years. "We are monitoring the situation very closely," she added. Meanwhile, in neighbouring Sudan the UN and NGOs have appealed for US $8.6 million to help tens of thousands of people left homeless by severe flooding in the Kassala area. Excessive rainfall in the Eritrean highlands, alongside localised rains, caused the Gash river to burst its banks late last month. Thirteen people have been killed and 56 injured, while thousands of houses have been destroyed along with Kassala town's only hospital. The first of four Red Cross/Crescent flights arrived in the flood-stricken town at the weekend, delivering much-needed relief - including a mass sanitation unit. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies described the health situation as alarming, with a five-fold increase in acute diarrhoea and a dramatic rise in malaria cases. "Many of Kassala's 350,000 inhabitants are living in precarious conditions with no shelter or access to drinking water or sanitation facilities, in the aftermath of what is being described as the worst floods to have hit the area in the last 70 years," the IFRC said in a statement. It said the Sudanese government had declared Kassala a disaster zone.