Heavy rain kills 140 in floods in Yemen and Sudan

At least 90 people have been killed in northern Yemen, according to Houthi rebels. 140 buildings collapsed in the heavy rainfall and more than 5,000 others were damaged, a spokesman for the so-called Humanitarian Council said. More than 24,000 families are said to live in the affected regions. The water masses have damaged the old center of the capital Sanaa and agricultural land, among other things.

This further exacerbates the humanitarian crisis. Global warming threatens the country with further water shortages, heat waves, sandstorms, landslides, rising sea levels and flooded coasts. The rainy season usually ends in August and brings frequent flooding. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced a week and a half ago that flash floods in Marib province had displaced thousands of people and severely damaged their homes.

Seven years of civil war
Moreover, a civil war has been raging in Yemen for more than seven years. With regard to the rainy season, the situation in Sudan is similar. Heavy rain usually falls there between May and October. As the state news agency Suna reported on Saturday, at least 52 people have died in the flooding. 25 other people are said to have been injured.

According to Suna, thousands of houses have been damaged or destroyed since May. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that about 38,000 people have been affected by flooding since the start of the rainy season. Last year there were a total of 314,500.