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Floods kill 9 in Sudan's Darfur

By AFP
Sudan A general view taken on March 18, 2014 shows a settlement for displaced people in North Darfur.  By Albert Gonzalez Farran UNAMIDAFPFile
JUL 16, 2016 LISTEN
A general view taken on March 18, 2014 shows a settlement for displaced people in North Darfur. By Albert Gonzalez Farran (UNAMID/AFP/File)

Khartoum (AFP) - Heavy rains and flash floods in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur killed nine people on Saturday, the official SUNA news agency reported.

The deaths occurred in the town of El-Fasher, the capital of the state of North Darfur.

"Heavy rains lashed the north and east parts of El-Fasher causing floods in two rivers," the town's municipal commissioner Eltijani Abdullah Salah told SUNA.

Salah said nine people drowned in the floods, including two from a camp for internally displaced people.

The United Nations aid agencies had warned of flooding in Sudan between July and November this year.

Darfur has seen violence since 2003 when ethnic minority rebels rose up against President Omar al-Bashir, accusing his Arab-dominated government of marginalising the region after which Bashir mounted a brutal counter-insurgency.

At least 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict and another 2.5 million have fled their homes, the UN says.

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