A massive landslide has killed at least 1,000 people in Sudan’s remote Marra Mountains, according to the rebel group Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A).
Triggered by days of heavy rainfall, the landslide struck the village of Tarasin on Sunday, leaving just one survivor and flattening most of the community, the group said in a statement.
The SLM/A appealed for urgent humanitarian aid from the United Nations as well as regional and international relief agencies. Many of the victims were internally displaced people from North Darfur, who had fled to the mountains amid ongoing fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Darfur’s governor Minni Minnawi, who is aligned with the Sudanese army, described the disaster as a “humanitarian tragedy.”
Sudan has been in the grip of civil war since April 2023, when clashes erupted between the army and RSF. The conflict has driven the country into famine and prompted accusations of genocide in Darfur.
Death toll estimates from the war vary widely, but a U.S. official last year suggested as many as 150,000 people may have been killed, with around 12 million displaced.
The SLM/A, which controls the area where the landslide occurred, has pledged to support the Sudanese military against the RSF. Many Darfuris accuse the RSF and allied militias of seeking to reshape the ethnically diverse region into an Arab-dominated territory.
