Sudan landslide erases entire village, with hundreds feared dead

Authorities warn nearby villages are also under threat as war impedes evacuations and humanitarian response

People gather at the scene of a landslide that wiped out the village of Tarsin in Darfur (Sudan People’s Liberation movement/Abdul Wahid faction)

People gather at the scene of a landslide that wiped out the village of Tarsin in Darfur (Sudan People’s Liberation movement/Abdul Wahid faction)

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A landslide in western Sudan’s Marra mountains on Sunday has totally erased the village of Tarsin.

Reliable information about the death toll is scarce, with people in the area putting it anywhere between scores killed to around 1,000 people.

Residents of the region said weeks of heavy rains on the range, which traverses three governorates in Darfur, culminated in the disaster.

They added that landslides are continuing, complicating rescue efforts and endangering other villages near Tarsin, which sits near a mountain summit more than 3,000 metres above sea level.

Over the past two years, the area has become a haven for thousands of Sudanese who have fled various places that have become embroiled in Sudan’s civil war.

Many of those displaced to the mountains escaped from el-Fasher, the state capital of North Sudan that has been under siege for more than 500 days, resulting in a humanitarian crisis.

Sudan’s war pits the Sudanese army and its former rebel allies against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced 12 million, ravaged the country’s infrastructure and caused famine in several locations.

The Ummro district, where Tarsin is located, has been held for two decades by the Sudan People’s Liberation movement/Abdul Wahid faction (SLM/AW), a rebel group aligned with the RSF.

International aid organisations have struggled for access to areas in Sudan even before this disaster, and now face rugged terrain, inaccessible routes and the danger of further landslides to reach Tarsin, let alone the conflict and chaos they already faced.

Dire situation

Adam Rigal, a support worker for displaced Sudanese in the area, told Middle East Eye that Tarsin’s entire population of over 1,000 people was killed, with just one person surviving as he happened to be out of the village at the time.

MEE was unable to immediately independently verify the claim.

“Hundreds of people are still under the ruins and people are only using local tools to retrieve the dead bodies with great difficulty,” Rigal said.

“The situation is really deteriorating, and the people are in bad need of emergency and humanitarian assistance in terms of retrieving the dead bodies and evacuation of the near villages.”

Men gather at the site of the landslide on Tarsin in Sudan's Darfur (Sudan People’s Liberation movement/Abdul Wahid faction)

Aid workers in Darfur told MEE the situation is especially disastrous because the war has made the area inaccessible.

“This natural disaster comes when the humanitarian situation is already dire because of war and hunger,” an aid worker in Central Darfur told MEE, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“So now is the moment for humanity to move together to save those victims of war and natural disasters.”

Danger to nearby communities

With landslides continuing in the surrounding area, residents of nearby villages have started to flee.

However, they have no secure location to head towards, or transportation methods other than walking or donkeys.

Rigal noted that a similar disaster happened in the area in 2018, when 20 people were killed by a landslide.

He also said there is a scarcity of food and no clean water, with health facilities in the region in pieces after two years of war, heightening the risk of cholera and dengue fever.

The leader of the SLM/AW, Abdul Wahid al-Nur, also warned of the danger to surrounding communities.

'The situation is really deteriorating, and the people are in bad need of emergency and humanitarian assistance'

- Adam Rigal, support worker

“Nearby villagers were overwhelmed with fear that a similar fate might befall them if the extreme precipitation and torrential rainfall persisted, which underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive evacuation plan and provision of emergency shelter for those at risk,” he said.

“I’m urgently appealing to the United Nations and its specialised agencies, as well as to all regional and international organisations to intervene without delay and provide immediate assistance to help save the lives of thousands of civilians currently at risk due to the ongoing landslides”

In the meantime, the Sudanese water and irrigation ministry has warned that heavy rains and “high and dangerous” floods are expected to continue and threaten different parts of the country outside of Darfur.

“The warning includes the states of North, River Nile, al-Jazira, North and West Darfur up to the borders with Chad in the west and probably Egypt in the north” the ministry said.

“More than 72 locations are in danger of floods with around 230,000 people facing different types of threat.”

The ministry called on communities to be on high alert and leave areas vulnerable to flooding.

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