At least 1,000 people have been killed in a landslide that wiped out an entire village in Sudan’s mountainous Jebel Marra area of Darfur, leaving just one survivor, according to the armed group controlling the region.
The landslide struck Tarseen village after a week of heavy rainfall, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, SLM/A, led by Abdelwahid Mohamed Nour said in a statement on Tuesday.
SLM/A, which has long controlled and governed an autonomous portion of Jebel Marra, appealed to the United Nations and international aid agencies to help recover the bodies of victims, including men, women and children.
“Tarseen, famed for its citrus production, has now been completely levelled to the ground,” he said in the statement.
The SLM/A has remained neutral in the battle between the main enemies in Sudan’s civil war, the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The two foes are fighting over control of al-Fashir, nearby capital of North Darfur state, which is under siege from the RSF and has suffered famine.
Residents of al-Fashir and nearby areas have sought shelter in Jebel Marra, though food, shelter, and medical supplies are insufficient, and hundreds of thousands have been exposed to the rains. Tawila, where most have arrived, is in the throes of a cholera outbreak.
The two-year civil war has left more than half the Sudanese facing crisis levels of hunger and driven millions from their homes, leaving them especially exposed to Sudan’s damaging yearly floods.
Sudan’s Army-controlled government expressed its condolences and willingness to assist. The newly-installed controlled government, which controls the areas surrounding Jebel Marra, did not immediately comment.
REUTERS/Christopher Ojilere