Villages have ceased to exist. Dozens of people are dead.

The disaster occurred on the night from Saturday to Sunday. The dam collapsed after flooding caused by a wave of heavy rain that hit the eastern regions of Sudan earlier than expected. Water from the Arbaat reservoir, which has a capacity of 25 million cubic meters, flooded villages. On Monday evening, Reuters reported that 20 villages were flooded. The people living in them fled to the mountains, where they are currently waiting for rescuers because they cannot get out.

At least 60 people were killed, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

A local official told Al-Tagheer that the damage caused by the collapse of the dam was widespread. A representative of the Red Sea Governorate told Al-Awsat that the situation was “catastrophic.”

There were also concerns about the impact of the dam collapse on water availability in Port Sudan, the capital of the Red Sea Province and now the country's administrative capital. The dam, built in 2003, was intended to store water for use during the dry season. Local media noted that the dam had not been maintained in recent years, and that silt had been accumulating rapidly in the reservoir.

According to the website of the local radio station Dabanga, Heavy rains also damaged Sudan's main fiber-optic cable, causing communications outages in many parts of the country.

Reuters recalls that Sudan has been struggling with a devastating civil war for several months, in which government forces SAF are fighting for power with the RSF Rapid Support Forces. Due to the conflict, almost 26 million Sudanese – half of the entire country – are struggling with acute food shortages, and almost 11 million people have been forced to leave their homes.

This year’s downpours are deepening the country’s ongoing humanitarian crisis. On Monday, the government’s wet season task force said 132 people had died in floods across the country. At least 118,000 people have been displaced by extreme rainfall this year, according to the U.N. agency.