Thousands of houses have been destroyed and several villages submerged after flooding triggered by torrential rainfall killed at least 100 people across Sudan, officials and an AFP photographer said on Sunday.

Thousands of people in the impoverished eastern state of Kasala bordering Eritrea fled their homes after the river Gash burst its banks, flooding entire villages inhabited by farmers.

Many people sheltered in makeshift grass huts on hilltops, after floodwaters also cut off the main highway between east Sudan and the capital Khartoum.