- “According to preliminary information, all the villagers, estimated at more than 1,000 people, were killed, and only one survived,” the faction led by Abdulwahid al-Nur said.
- “The disaster is much bigger than our available resources”
KHARTOUM: Rescue teams struggled to reach a remote mountain village in Sudan’s Darfur region on Tuesday after a devastating landslide buried almost the entire village, killing more than 1,000 people.
The storm was triggered by heavy rain on Sunday that devastated the village of Tarasin in the Jebel Marra mountains, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM) rebel group that controls the area said in a statement, adding that only one person had survived.
“Preliminary reports indicate that all the villagers, estimated at more than 1,000, have been killed, with only one survivor,” the faction led by Abdulwahid Al-Nour said, calling the landslide “massive and devastating.”
The group has appealed to the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations to help retrieve the dead, still buried under mud and debris.
“It’s beyond our capabilities,” Noor told AFP via messaging app.
“Mass of mud has fallen on the village. Our humanitarian teams and local residents are trying to recover bodies, but the scale of the disaster far exceeds our available resources,” he said.
The African Union has called on Sudan to “silence the guns” and allow humanitarian aid to reach victims of the deadly landslide.
“In these painful circumstances, the Commission Chair… calls on all stakeholders in Sudan to stop shooting and unite to facilitate the rapid and effective delivery of emergency humanitarian aid to those in need,” the bloc said in a statement.
Images published by SLM on its website show huge sections of the mountainside collapsing, burying the village under thick mud and uprooted trees.
The footage shows people standing on sharp rocks, searching for those buried under the mud.
The SDF controls parts of the Jebel Marra mountain range and has largely stayed out of the conflict, but hundreds of thousands of people have fled into SDF-controlled territory to escape the violence.
Jebel Marra is a rocky volcanic ridge stretching about 160 kilometres (100 miles) southwest of North Darfur’s besieged capital El Fasher, which Reporters Without Borders forces are trying to capture after more than a year of siege.
The area is prone to landslides, especially during the rainy season, which peaks in August. In 2018, a landslide in nearby Toukoli killed at least 20 people.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in war, sparked by a power struggle between army commander Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy, Rapid Intervention Force commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Rivals react to Sunday’s disaster.
Burhan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, which leads the internationally recognised government based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, mourned the victims on Tuesday.
It pledged to mobilise all available resources to support those affected by what it called a “painful catastrophe”.
The rival government, based in the South Darfur state capital of Nyala, also spoke out about the tragedy.
RSF-backed government Prime Minister Mohamed Hassan Al-Taaishi expressed deep sorrow and said solidarity must come before politics.
“This is a deeply human moment,” he said, adding that “the lives and safety of Sudanese citizens come before any political or military considerations.”
He also said he had spoken directly with UDF leader Nur to assess needs on the ground.
Much of Darfur, including the area where the landslide occurred, remains inaccessible to international humanitarian organizations due to ongoing fighting, severely limiting the delivery of emergency aid.
The disaster also occurred during Sudan’s rainy season, when mountain roads often become impassable.
In Sudan’s main war zones, such as Darfur, infrastructure was already fragile after more than two years
years of struggle.
Earlier this year, Burhan’s forces recaptured central Sudan in a series of offensives, leaving the RSF in control of most of Darfur and parts of Kordofan in the south.
Paramilitary groups have taken steps to establish a rival government in areas they still control.
This week, RSF commander Dagalo was sworn in as head of the newly formed presidential council, and Taaishi was sworn in as prime minister.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 14 million to flee their homes, according to the UN.