Heavy rains have caused the collapse of thousands of houses in the town of Abu Hamad, in the northeastern part of Sudan, which has been devastated by almost sixteen months of war, with the death toll so far at least 17, an AFP medical source said Tuesday.

“The number of victims has reached 17,” said the source, who works at Abu Hamad hospital in Nile state, about 400 kilometers north of the capital Khartoum.

“The electricity has been cut in the city” and “people spend the night outside, fearing that there will be new rains” and house collapses, he added.

Some 11,500 homes have been destroyed so far, state infrastructure minister Samir Saad told reporters. In addition to the people who lost their lives, another 170 have been injured.

Heavy rainfall is usually recorded in Sudan between May and October. The country is currently experiencing floods that cause extensive damage to houses, infrastructure, and crops.

Last week, five deaths were already recorded in Port Sudan, in the eastern part of the country. Dozens more people were injured, while more than 5,000 homes there were damaged.

According to the United Nations, the weather caused the displacement of more than 21,000 people in June, most of them from areas already hard hit by the war.

As the rainy season approached, humanitarian organizations warned against the risk of entire regions being cut off.

Every year, the rainy season leaves behind many victims in Sudan, either directly, due to disasters, or indirectly, due to spreading diseases.

The damage is set to be even worse this year, after nearly sixteen months of war that has reduced much of the infrastructure to rubble and forced millions of forcibly displaced people to seek refuge in areas at risk of flooding.

The war in Sudan broke out on 15 April 2023 between the army, under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitaries, under the then number two of the military junta, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (DTY). It has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, with estimates of as many as 150,000 dead, according to the US special envoy for Sudan, Tom Periello.

It has forced over 11 million people to become internally displaced persons and refugees.

Warring sides are accused of war crimes: deliberately targeting civilians, obstructing — or looting — humanitarian aid intended for the civilian population.

And with the country mired in “one of the worst humanitarian crises” in modern world history, according to the UN, most humanitarian and non-governmental organizations have ground to a halt.