Sunstroke kills 50 Sudanese nationals in Aswan as temperatures soar

Dozens of Sudanese nationals have died of sunstroke in Aswan Governorate in recent days, according to medical and local sources.

A heatwave that struck Upper Egypt last week has seen temperatures in Aswan reach as high as 49.6C, fatally impacting residents suffering overexposure to the sun, including many Sudanese nationals who have fled the year-old war in their country to Egypt.

A medical source at Aswan University Hospital told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity that 50 Sudanese nationals have died of sunstroke over a short period of time, adding that “some of the bodies that arrived [at the hospital] were severely sunburnt and showed signs of dehydration.”

The public morgue in Aswan has received a large number of bodies belonging to Sudanese individuals who died from sunstroke in the past two days, MP Reham Abdel Nabi, who holds a seat for Aswan in the House of Representatives, told Mada Masr.

They are "discovered by chance, mostly by border guards and relevant authorities, and then transferred to the Aswan morgue," she added.

Sudanese Consul in Aswan Abdel Qadir Abdullah offered condolences in a statement on Sunday evening, pointing to both sunstroke and traffic accidents as causes of death and describing those killed as undocumented migrants smuggled into Egypt.

Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese have fled the violence brought about by the war that broke out in Sudan over a year ago.

Changes in the rules regulating how Sudanese nationals enter the country mean that people are increasingly entering Egypt informally, said Sudanese women and children's rights activist Iman Hamad al-Nil.

For the first time in decades, new measures introduced after the war required that Sudanese nationals apply for a visa in Egypt before they arrive, something that is “nearly impossible” for them to obtain, Nil explained. Waiting for visa approval at the Egyptian consulate in Sudan takes months, she added, meaning that those with the funds to do so use their connections to facilitate the process, paying between US$1,000 and $3,000, while those without the financial means cross the land border illegally, without the documents.

The medical source told Mada Masr that other Sudanese nationals were admitted to the hospital with sunstroke and survived, and that some of them said that "dozens in the desert are without water" and "entire families perished due to the high temperatures and were left behind."

An inspector at an Aswan mining company speaking to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity similarly said that many Sudanese nationals have been found deceased over the past week. The mining company operates in areas intersecting with human trafficking routes, through which many Sudanese nationals are brought illegally into Egypt by actors with a stake in the informal mining sector. "Every day we find two or three vehicles on the road with the people inside dead," the inspector said, adding that “most of the deaths are due to hunger, thirst and sunstroke, including men, women, children, and elderly individuals."

Abdel Nabi submitted an urgent statement to the government on Sunday, demanding the government issue an urgent decision to halt the scheduled power cuts in Aswan. "Outpatient clinics in the Health Ministry’s hospitals and healthcare centers in Aswan saw cases of fainting and heat exhaustion due to sunstroke, coinciding with the record-high temperatures," the MP said in the statement.

Starting on Monday, Egypt experienced a heatwave during which Aswan recorded temperatures not less than 47C over several days, according to the Egyptian Meteorological Authority. The authority stated that, for the first time in 18 years, the governorate reached on Friday a temperature of 49.6C in the shade.