Sudan: Drought Displaced Start to Flock Towards Khartoum

Khartoum, Sudan - The first wave of people displaced due to the current drought have started to trek towards Khartoum, an official of the Khartoum State has announced.
Sharfaddin Bannaga, the state's housing minister, said "a limited number" of the displaced have already settled on the outskirts of Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city, just across the White Nile.

Bannaga, who has been warning of a possible mass exodus towards the capital and other major cities for sometime now, reiterated the call that due measure be taken to face the problem.

"All indications show that the number of the displaced would escalate because of drought and low rainfall," he warned in a press statement Monday.

The minister's warning came just a day after an official report said the areas cultivated with sorghum, the staple food of rural Sudanese, were less by 24 percent this year.

According to the report, the areas most affected by the low rainfall are Northern Kordufan and Nahr el Neel States (around Khartoum) and North Darfur State in the far west.

Compiled by representatives of the agriculture ministry, FAO, CARE International and UNICEF, the report has urged the government to buy a reserve of sorghum to be used when the need arises.

The report, according to Bannaga, has proposed for the reserve to be "within half a million tons."

Bannaga last week urged the government to seek international aid "to control the situation before it is too late."

He had also indicated a deficit in animal fodder in the State of Khartoum as a result of low rainfall. He put the deficit in fodder at 20 percent of the overall demand.

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