An estimated 1,000 people have died after a landslide hit the remote Marrah Mountains in western Sudan, according to reports.
The disaster struck Tarsin village on Sunday, Aug. 31, after heavy rainfall triggered the collapse, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM) — the armed group controlling the area — announced Monday, per the BBC and local 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. The group added that the entire village had been “completely leveled to the ground.”
The statement also appealed for urgent help: “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.”
Photos shared from the scene show a large flattened stretch of land between mountains where the village once stood.
Antoine Gérard, the UN’s deputy humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, told the BBC that the true death toll is still unclear because the area is extremely hard to reach.
“We do not have helicopters, everything goes in vehicles on very bumpy roads,” Gérard explained. “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 supplies will be a challenge.”
Adam Rijal, spokesman for the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees in Darfur, said the Marrah Mountains disaster mirrors a 2018 tragedy when hundreds of villagers in Turba were killed by a landslide.
“Such disasters should shake the conscience of the entire world,” Rijal told local 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 as Sudan remains locked in a civil war between the national army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in April 2023. According to BBC reporting that cited U.S. data from 2024, an estimated 150,000 people have been killed in the conflict, while around 12 million have been forced from their homes.
The Sudan Tribune reported that the UN and humanitarian organizations will need special permits from both the Sudanese government and the RSF before they can enter the area. The RSF controls most of the western region, including six of the eight localities in Central Darfur State.
