Sudan landslide kills 1,000

UN mobilises response after devastating landslide in Darfur region

KHARTOUM:

The United Nations said on Tuesday it is working to respond to a devastating landslide in Sudan's Darfur region that buried an entire mountain village, killing as many as 1,000 people.

Heavy rain triggered the disaster on Sunday, flattening the village of Tarasin in the remote Jebel Marra range, the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM) faction which controls the area said in a statement, adding that there was only one survivor.

"The United Nations and our humanitarian partners are mobilising to provide support to the affected population," UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan Luca Renda said in a statement.

Citing sources on the ground, Renda said the death toll from the landslide was believed to be between 300 and 1,000.

The SLM faction led by Abdulwahid al-Nur had earlier estimated the death toll at more than 1,000 people.

"Initial information indicates the death of all village residents, estimated at more than 1,000 individuals, with only one survivor," the group said, calling the landslide "massive and devastating".

It appealed to the UN and other aid organisations for help in recovering the dead from beneath the mud and debris.

"Masses of mud fell onto the village," Nur told AFP via a messaging app.

"Our humanitarian teams and local residents are trying to retrieve the bodies, but the scale of the disaster is far greater than the resources available to us," he said.

Images the SLM published on its website appeared to show vast swathes of the mountainside sheared away, with the village below buried under thick mud and uprooted trees.

The African Union called on "all Sudanese stakeholders to silence the guns and unite in facilitating the swift and effective delivery of emergency humanitarian assistance".

In a telegram published by the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV said he was "deeply saddened to learn of the devastation caused by the landslide", praising "the civil authorities and emergency personnel in their ongoing relief efforts".

The SLM controls parts of the Jebel Marra range and has mostly stayed out of more than two years of war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).