The old man pointed at where his village has been before the River Gash burst its banks and swept everything away.

There was little left of the settlement or Abu Asha Ibrahim’s home.

He, his wife and seven children were inside when they suddenly heard noises outside.

“There was water all over the place and it was rising very fast,” said Ibrahim, standing near his new shelter at an emergency distribution point just north of Kassala town in eastern Sudan.

“I grabbed the children, put them on a wooden bed and carried them to the highway, which was still dry,” said Ibrahim. “Neighbours helped other people to safety, rescuing the elderly and children first.”

Not everybody made it. “Two women and a small baby drowned in the water,” he said.

Ibrahim’s family escaped unhurt, but lost all their belongings.

He and hundreds of fellow villagers have been camped at Kassala since then. It is one of at least five emergency distribution points operated by UN agencies along the Khartoum-Port Sudan highway for about 20,000 people.

At one location, run by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), dozens of flood victims with similar stories waited as a WFP official read the names of people registered to receive food.

Some were quickly disenchanted not to be listed on this day.

Ahmed Hussein Ahmed said he lost his home and shop when the River Gash waters hit his village Togole near Kassala. It was his first time at the distribution point and Ahmed was disappointed he would have to go empty-handed and return on another day.

“We have the capacity to support them, but it all depends on the results of assessments,” said Ahmed Mohammed Abdallah, the WFP officer in charge in Kassala.

“We give them cereal, oil, also sugar which we don’t give in our regular programs,” he added. “We do not want to create dependency.”

Other UN agencies, including the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), have also been helping the flood victims.

UNICEF resident project officer in Kassala Ali Ahmed Abuelgassim said public awareness campaigns, including health education carried out by UNICEF, the local authorities and other agencies, helped prevent the spread of epidemics that result from poor sanitation.

UNICEF prepared and distributed posters about people washing their hands before eating, garbage removal and the use of mosquito nets. It also distributed chlorine for purifying water and medical supplies.

“We will continue to support them until the situation stabilises,” said Abuelgassim.

This year’s floods, the worst in living memory, have claimed about 90 lives in Sudan.

“Estimates indicate that at least 365,000 people have been directly affected by the floods so far, signifying total or partial loss of their home, household goods, or food stocks,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a recent report.

“Many more are affected by the damage to local livelihoods and could be at risk of epidemics,” it added.