Over 1,000 People Presumed Dead After Devastating Landslide in Sudan

An estimated 1,000 people have died after a landslide occurred in the remote Marrah Mountains in western Sudan, according to reports.

The residents of Tarsin village were killed when heavy rain caused the landslide on Sunday, Aug. 31, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM), an armed group that controls the affected area, announced on Monday, per the BBC and local news outlet the Sudan Tribune.

“Initial information indicates the death of all the villagers, estimated at more than a thousand people, and only one person survived,” SLM said in a statement, adding that the entire area was “completely leveled to the ground” in the landslide.

“We therefore appeal to the United Nations, regional and international organizations, and the living human conscience to help us recover the bodies of the dead from under the soil, whose number is estimated at more than a thousand people, men, women and children,” the statement read.

Photos from the scene show a flattened area between mountain ranges where the village of Tarsin was.

Antoine Gérard, the UN’s deputy humanitarian co-ordinator for Sudan, told the BBC that the exact death toll from the landslide is currently unknown as the location of the village is difficult to reach.

“We do not have helicopters, everything goes in vehicles on very bumpy roads,” Gérard told the outlet. “It takes time and it is the rainy season — sometimes we have to wait hours, maybe a day or two to cross a valley… bringing in trucks with commodities will be a challenge.”

Adam Rijal, a spokesman for the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees in Darfur, noted that the natural disaster in Central Darfur’s Marrah Mountains is similar to the tragedy that happened in 2018, where hundreds of Turba villagers were killed in a landslide.

“Such disasters should shake the conscience of the entire world,” Rijal said, per local news outlet Sawt al-Hamish. “The Sudanese people must realize the magnitude of the tragedy and the need to unite to confront its effects.”

The landslide comes amid a civil war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that has been ongoing since April 2023. Death tolls from the conflict vary, with an estimated 150,000 people having been killed and around 12 million fleeing their homes, the BBC reported, citing a U.S. official’s 2024 statistics. 

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The RSF and the Sudanese government will have to provide passage permits to the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations before they are able to access the area affected by the landslide, according to the Sudan Tribune. The RSF controls most of the western region, including six out of the eight localities in Central Darfur State.

PEOPLE reached out to the United Nations and SLM for further comment on Tuesday, Sept. 2.