More than 1000 people are reportedly dead after a landslide struck the village of Tarasin in Sudan’s central Darfur region on Sunday.
The rebel group controlling the area, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, said in a statement: “Initial information indicates the death of all village residents, estimated to be more than one thousand people. Only one person survived.”
The rebel group said that the disaster struck Tarasin village in Central Darfur’s Marrah Mountains on Sunday, following several days of heavy late-August rainfall.
The group said the village was “completely levelled to the ground” and urged the UN and international aid organisations to assist in recovering the victims’ bodies.
Minni Minnawi, Darfur’s Army-aligned governor said the landslide was a “humanitarian tragedy”.
According to Al Jazeera, the remote Marrah Mountains of central Darfur, inaccessible by road, serve as a refuge for many, including those displaced by conflict, making its villages densely populated.
The disaster struck amid a brutal civil war that erupted in April 2023, when clashes between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces erupted in Khartoum and across the country. Widespread conflict and severe access restrictions have left much of Darfur, including the Marrah Mountains, largely unreachable for the UN and humanitarian organisations.
Estimates of casualties from Sudan’s ongoing civil war vary widely, with a US official last year putting the death toll at up to 150,000 and around 12 million displaced, the BBC reported.
Meanwhile, factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, which control the region affected by the landslide, have declared their support for the Sudanese military in fighting the Rapid Support Forces.
