Despite the long-lasting and widespread drought in the Sahel, flood events did punctuate in the past. The concern about floods remains dwarf on the international research and policy agenda compared to droughts. In this paper, we elucidate that floods in the Sahel are now becoming more frequent, widespread, and more devastating. We analyzed gridded daily rainfall data over the period 1981–2020, used photographs and satellite images to depict flood areas and threats, compiled and studied flood-related statistics over the past two decades, and supported the results with peer-reviewed literature. Our analysis revealed that the timing of the maximum daily rainfall occurs from the last week of July to mid-August in the Eastern Sahel, but from the last week of July to the end of August in the Western Sahel. In 2019 and 2020, flash and riverine floods took their toll in Sudan and elsewhere in the region in terms of the number of affected people, direct deaths, destroyed and damaged houses and croplands, contaminated water resources, and disease outbreaks and deaths. Changes in rainfall intensity, human interventions in the physical environment, and poor urban planning play a major role in driving catastrophic floods. Emphasis should be put on understanding flood causes and impacts on vulnerable societies, controlling water-borne diseases, and recognizing the importance of compiling relevant and reliable flood information. Extreme rainfall in this dry region could be an asset for attenuating the regional water scarcity status if well harvested and managed. We hope this paper will induce the hydroclimate scholars to carry out more flood studies for the Sahel. It is only then encumbered meaningful opportunities for flood risk management can start to unveil.

尽管萨赫勒地区干旱长期广泛存在，但过去确实发生了洪灾事件。与干旱相比，对洪水的担忧在国际研究和政策议程上仍然相形见war。在本文中，我们阐明了萨赫勒地区的洪水现在变得更加频繁，广泛且更具破坏性。我们分析了1981-2020年期间的网格日降雨数据，使用照片和卫星图像描绘了洪水区域和威胁，在过去的二十年中汇编和研究了与洪水有关的统计数据，并通过同行评审的文献支持了这一结果。我们的分析表明，每日最大降雨量的发生时间是从7月的最后一周到8月中旬在萨赫勒东部，而从7月的最后一周到8月底在萨赫勒西部是。在2019年和2020年，在受灾人数，直接死亡，房屋和农田被毁和损毁，水资源受到污染以及疾病暴发和死亡等方面，山洪和河流洪水给苏丹和该地区其他地区造成了巨大损失。降雨强度的变化，人为干预自然环境以及糟糕的城市规划在推动灾难性洪水中起着重要作用。应着重了解洪水的成因和对脆弱社会的影响，控制水传播的疾病，并认识到汇编相关和可靠的洪水信息的重要性。如果收集和管理得当，该干旱地区的极端降雨可能是减轻该地区缺水状况的一项资产。我们希望本文能吸引水文气候学者对萨赫勒地区进行更多的洪水研究。