
A “devastating” landslide has killed at least 1,000 people in the remote Marra Mountains in western Sudan, according to the rebel group Sudan Liberation Movement/Army. Days of heavy rains, which peaked on Sunday, triggered the landslide, which the group said left only one survivor and “completely destroyed” most of the village of Tarasin.
The movement has requested humanitarian assistance from the United Nations and other regional and international organizations. Many residents of North Darfur state had taken refuge in the Marra Mountains area after fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group forced them to abandon their homes.
The civil war, which broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF, has plunged the country into mass starvation and led to accusations of genocide in the western Darfur region. Estimates of the war's death toll vary widely, but last year a US official said that as many as 150,000 people may have been killed since the start of hostilities in 2023. An estimated 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes.
Factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, which controls the area where the landslide occurred, have pledged to fight alongside the Sudanese army against the RSF. Many Darfurians believe that the RSF and allied militias have waged a war with the aim of turning the region, which has a mixed ethnic population, into a territory under full Arab dominance.
Much of Darfur, including the area where the landslide occurred, remains almost inaccessible to international humanitarian organizations due to ongoing fighting, which severely limits the ability to provide immediate humanitarian assistance.