Landslide wipes out Sudan village, killing hundreds

KHARTOUM: Sudanese authorities, the United Nations and aid groups scrambled on Tuesday (Sep 2) to respond to a devastating landslide in Darfur that buried an entire mountain village and killed hundreds of people.

Heavy rain triggered the disaster on Sunday, flattening the village of Tarasin in the remote Jebel Marra range, according to the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM) faction that controls the area. UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan Luca Renda said the death toll was believed to be between 300 and 1,000, though the full scale remains unclear as the site is extremely difficult to access.

VILLAGE WIPED OUT

The SLM faction, led by Abdulwahid al-Nur, said more than 1,000 people were feared dead, with only one survivor pulled from the debris. The survivor is in a coma with multiple fractures and a severe head injury, according to relatives.

Fath al-Rahman Ali Abdelnour, whose father founded Tarasin in the 1980s, told AFP that the village also hosted around 450 displaced people who had fled Sudan’s ongoing war between the army and rival paramilitaries.

AID MOBILISATION

“Our humanitarian teams and local residents are trying to retrieve the bodies, but the scale of the disaster is far greater than the resources available to us,” Nur said. Images posted online by the group showed the mountainside sheared away, with the village below buried under thick mud and uprooted trees.

The African Union called on all parties in Sudan to “silence the guns” and allow emergency aid to flow. Both the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) issued calls for humanitarian mobilisation but stopped short of offering a ceasefire.

'PAINFUL DISASTER'

Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council pledged to mobilise all resources to respond to what it called a “painful disaster”. In Nyala, South Darfur, the paramilitary-backed government also announced relief efforts.

Prime Minister Mohamed Hassan al-Taayshi, appointed by RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, said he had spoken with SLM leader Nur to assess needs on the ground. “The lives and safety of Sudanese citizens are above any political or military considerations,” he said.

CHAD BORDER REOPENED

Aid access remains limited due to fighting, impassable roads and fragile infrastructure in Darfur. On Tuesday, Sudan’s army-aligned government announced it would extend the reopening of the Adre border crossing with Chad until year-end, calling the decision a critical lifeline for humanitarian operations.

The Jebel Marra range, known for citrus production, is prone to deadly landslides during the rainy season, which peaks in August. A 2018 landslide in nearby Toukoli killed at least 20 people.