Sudan appeals for aid after landslide kills more than 1,000 people in single village in Darfur

This is a locator map for Sudan with its capital, Khartoum. (AP Photo)

CAIRO -- Sudan appealed for international aid on Tuesday after a landslide wiped out an entire village in western region of Darfur, killing an estimated 1,000 people in one of the deadliest natural disasters in the African country’s recent history.

The village of Tarasin was “completely levelled to the ground,” the Sudan Liberation Movement-Army said as it appealed to the UN and international aid groups for help to recover the bodies.

The tragedy happened Sunday in the village, located in Central Darfur’s Marrah Mountains, after days of heavy rainfall.

“Initial information indicates the death of all village residents, estimated to be more than 1,000 people,” the rebel group said in a statement. “Only one person survived,” it added.

Abdel-Wahid Nour, the group’s leader, made an appeal on Tuesday for international help. “The scale and magnitude of the disaster are immense and defy description,” he said.

The ruling Sovereign Council in Khartoum said it mourned “the death of hundreds of innocent residents” in the Marrah Mountains’ landslide. In a statement, it said “all possible capabilities” have been mobilized to support the area.

Footage shared by the Marrah Mountains news outlet showed a flattened area between mountain ranges with a group of people searching the area.

Luca Renda, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said he was “deeply saddened” by the reported landslide, adding that local sources indicated that “between 300 and 1,000 people may have lost their lives.” He said the UN and its partners were mobilizing to support the impacted communities at the scene.

A local emergency network, which has been providing support to communities across Sudan during the war, said its teams recovered the bodies of at nine people on Tuesday. Search teams were facing challenges to reach the area because of bad weather and lack of resources, it added.

`Unprecedented tragedy’

Al-Amin Abdallah Abbas, a farmer from Ammo -- a cluster of villages that includes Tarasin -- said the area has seen weeks of heavy rainfall, with Tarasin among the worst hit. He said tribal and community leaders in nearby areas have moblized efforts to recover and bury the victims.

“The village and its people disappeared,” he said. “It’s an unprecedented tragedy.”

Mohamed Abdel-Rahman al-Nair, a spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement-Army, told The Associated Press that the village where the landslide took place is remote and accessible only by foot or donkeys.

Tarasin is located in the central Marrah Mountains, a volcanic area with a height of more than 3,000 metres at its summit. A world heritage site, the mountain chain is known for its lower temperature and higher rainfall than surrounding areas, according to UNICEF. It’s located more than 900 kilometres west of the capital city, Khartoum.

Sunday’s landslide was one of the deadliest natural disasters in Sudan’s recent history. Hundreds of people die every year in seasonal rains that run from July to October. Last year’s heavy rainfall caused the collapse of a dam in the eastern Red Sea Province, killing at least 30 people, according to the UN.

The tragedy came as a devastating civil war has engulfed Sudan after tensions between the country’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, exploded into open fighting in April 2023 in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

`Deprived of adequate assistance’

Most of the conflict-stricken Darfur region has become mostly inaccessible for the UN and aid groups, given crippling restrictions and fighting between Sudan’s military and the RSF.

Aid group Doctors Without Borders has warned that multiple communities in Darfur, including the Marrah Mountains, have been cut off after more than two years of war and isolation, describing these areas as “a black hole” in Sudan’s humanitarian response.

It said in a July report that people in these communities have been “deprived of adequate assistance and neglected by aid actors for over two years.”

The International Organization for Migration on Tuesday called for safe access and scaling-up support to the area, saying in a statement: “The people of Sudan cannot bear this never-ending suffering alone.”

The Sudan Liberation Movement-Army, centered in the Marrah Mountains area, is one of multiple rebel groups active in the Darfur and Kordofan regions. It hasn’t taken sides in the war.

The Marrah Mountains are a rugged volcanic chain extending for 160 kilometres southwest of el-Fasher, an epicenter of fighting between the military and the RSF. The area has turned into a hub for displaced families fleeing fighting in and around the besieged city.

On Monday, the RSF shelled el-Fasher, the military’s last stronghold in Darfur, killing at least 18 people and injuring over 100 others, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, a group of professionals tracking the war.

The RSF didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alleged war crimes

The conflict in Sudan has killed more than 40,000 people, forced more than 14 million to flee their homes and left some families eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive as famine swept parts of the country.

It has been marked by gross atrocities including ethnically motivated killing and rape, according to the United Nations and rights groups. The International Criminal Court said it was investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The conflict created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with more than 30 million of the country’s 50 million population needing assistance. Of those, over 630,000 live in famine-stricken areas in Darfur and Kordofan regions, according to the international hunger experts.

By Samy Magdy