Sudan’s finance ministry promises to support flood victims

A flooded Khartoum street, August 3 Khartoum – Abedalgoum Ashmeag Sudan\'s minister of finance has announced his government will take steps to reform the country’s budget based on reducing inflation, and promised support for the victims of recent floods.
 Speaking to the national Sudanese broadcaster on Friday, Ali Mahmoud Abdel-Rasool expressed his support for increasing social subsidies and agricultural production, and criticised the media for focussing on the removal of fuel subsidies, while failing to show an interest in increasing social support for vulnerable people.
 The ministers also called on armed movements to give up violence and to join national dialogue, saying the country needs the energy of its citizens to be used building and developing Sudan, not fuelling the wars and conflicts.
Referring to recent floods that left 11 dead and over 14,000 houses damaged in different parts of Sudan, Abdel-Rasool said his department had donated 25 million Sudanese pounds ($5.6 million) to the Interior Ministry to deal with the aftermath.
The Finance Ministry would give priority to providing food and basic goods to the residents of the states affected, he added.
 Heavy rains and flash floods in Khartoum and other parts of Sudan have affected almost 100,000 people in the country, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
 Giving the first official figures for the impact of the flooding, which began on August 1, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the capital region and Nile state to its north were the worst hit, but that five other states were also inundated.
 Eight of the deaths occurred in the greater Khartoum area, where almost 60,000 people were affected, data showed.
 OCHA said “an estimated 98,500 people have been affected by heavy rain and flash floods” in a zone from Red Sea state in the east, through Khartoum state, to South Darfur in the west.

Additional source: AFP