Landslide in Sudan kills nearly 1,000 people

A landslide triggered by heavy rains buried a village in western Sudan on Sunday, killing around 1,000 people, the armed group that controls the region announced Monday.

“We follow with deep sadness and concern the tragic events affecting the residents of Tarsin village, due to the massive and devastating landslides that hit the village, located in the center of Jebel Marra, in Amo district,” said the Sudan Liberation Army Movement (SLM).

According to initial reports, all the villagers died, including "men, women, and children." Only one person is believed to have survived the landslide.

The group, led by Abdelwahid Mohamed Nour, said the village was “completely destroyed” and called on the United Nations to help recover the bodies and remove the rubble.

Sudan is embroiled in a war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a conflict that has already displaced thousands of people to the Marra Mountains. The SLM, the rebel group controlling Jebel Marra, has remained neutral in the clashes between the two forces. The war in Sudan began in April 2023 and has already resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people and displaced around 13 million, according to international estimates. It is currently considered the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet.

After losing control of the capital, Khartoum, in March, paramilitaries intensified drone attacks against civilian facilities and strategic infrastructure controlled by the Armed Forces, especially in the northeast and south of the country, in an attempt to economically weaken the military-dominated government.