Sudan Village Destroyed by Landslide, Over 1,000 Feared Dead

Select Language:

A helicopter photograph from June 19, 2017, reveals an aerial view of Golo, a town devastated by war, nestled within the dense forests of Jebel Marra in central Darfur, Sudan. — AFP

– Entire village buried under Jebel Marra’s slopes.
– Only one person survives the catastrophe.
– SLM calls for immediate UN aid.

A massive landslide in Sudan’s Darfur region has demolished an entire mountain village and claimed over 1,000 lives, with only a single survivor reported, according to the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM). This disaster occurred Sunday after successive days of heavy rainfall, devastating Tarasin in the rugged Jebel Marra mountains.

“The initial reports indicate everyone in the village perished, with an estimated death toll exceeding 1,000,” said the SLM, led by Abdulwahid al-Nur. The landslide was described as “massive and destructive.” The group has appealed to the United Nations and humanitarian organizations to assist in recovering those still trapped under mud and debris.

Photos circulating on social media depict extensive landslide damage, with large parts of the mountainside collapsing, burying the village under a layer of thick mud, uprooted trees, and broken wood beams.

Sudan is embroiled in a brutal conflict between its military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), plunging the nation into an acute humanitarian crisis. The SLM maintains control over parts of the Jebel Marra region and has largely remained uninvolved in the fighting, but many civilians have fled into SLM-controlled zones seeking safety.

Jebel Marra, a rugged volcanic mountain range spanning roughly 100 miles southwest of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, is a region prone to landslides, particularly during the rainy season peaking in August. A similar event in 2018 near Toukoli resulted in at least 20 fatalities.

Darfur’s governor, Minni Minnawi, described the landslide as a “humanitarian tragedy that exceeds regional borders.” He urged international aid groups to provide urgent support, emphasizing that the scale of the tragedy surpasses what the local community can handle alone.

Much of Darfur, including the landslide-affected area, remains difficult for international aid to access due to ongoing hostilities, hindering vital assistance efforts. The rainy season further complicates rescue operations by rendering remote mountain roads impassable.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by conflict rooted in a power struggle between army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. Recent offensives have seen Burhan’s forces regain control of central Sudan, leaving the RSF dominant in most of Darfur—controlling all but one of its state capitals, including El-Fasher—and parts of southern Kordofan.

The violence has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and displaced millions, including approximately four million from the capital alone. The war has shattered infrastructure and driven what the UN describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger emergency.

Currently, around 10 million people are internally displaced within Sudan, while another four million have fled internationally, according to United Nations reports.