Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent.
Facing record floods that have killed more than 100 people and displaced tens of thousands more, Sudan’s government just declared a three-month state of emergency. Already contending with COVID-19 and a flailing economy, a faltering response to this natural disaster threatens to further destabilize the country’s fragile transitional government.
Unusually heavy seasonal rains across the region have caused the Nile River to rise nearly six feet in some parts of Sudan and brought floodwaters to 16 of the country’s 18 states. At least 100,000 homes have collapsed, and more than half a million people are now in need of humanitarian assistance. Rising waters are also threatening two ancient pyramids built during the Kushite Empire more than 2,300 years ago along the Nile in northern Sudan.