Awel - Some 57,000 people have been forced from their homes because of dramatic floods in south-western Sudan over the past month, health officials say.

Heavy rains have left Aweil, the main town of Northern Bahr al-Ghazal province, largely under water.

Southern Sudan is voting on whether to secede from the north in a referendum in January.

The United Nations has already provided some kind of food assistance to almost half the population of the south this year, he says.