Overflowing rivers and houses collapsing because of heavy rains have killed over 60 people across Sudan this month, a senior Sudanese official said Tuesday as residents in the capital stacked sand bags along the Nile's embankments to avert more flooding. «Sixty-two people were killed as a result of the floods and rains,» General Awad Allah Widaa told The Associated Press. The head of the Emergency Commission for the Alleviation of the Effects of Floods and Rains said 145 people had also been injured since the unusually strong seasonal downpours began in June, and tens of thousands of cattle lost, The Associated Press reported. He said the homes of over 40,000 families are affected in northern Sudan alone. Most of the north is usually semi-desertic, and many houses here are constructed in local materials that can't resist overly strong rains. More than 23,000 mudbrick houses have collapsed, Widaa said, and at least 140 public buildings including schools and hospitals are heavily damaged. Major roads have also been cut off, he said.
