According to a UN official, a landslide has killed at least 370 people in the remote Marra Mountains in western Sudan.
The UN’s deputy humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Antoine Gérard, revealed that it was hard to determine the scale of the incident or the exact death toll as the area was very hard to reach.
The armed group in control of the affected area, Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), had earlier stated that as many as 1,000 people could have lost their lives.
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According to the group, days of heavy rain triggered the landslide on Sunday, which left just one survivor and “levelled” much of the village of Tarseen.
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The SLM/A has called for humanitarian support from the UN and other regional and international organisations. Getting aid quickly to the area would be difficult, said Mr. Gérard to the BBC.
“We do not have helicopters, everything goes in vehicles on very bumpy roads. 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.”
Multiple residents from North Darfur state had sought refuge in the Marra Mountains region, after war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) forced them from their homes.
The SLM/A has remained neutral in the conflict. Minni Minnawi, Darfur’s army-aligned governor, termed the landslide a “humanitarian tragedy”.
“We appeal to international humanitarian organisations to urgently intervene and provide support and assistance at this critical moment, for the tragedy is greater than what our people can bear alone,” he said in a statement quoted by the AFP news agency.
Footage shows two gullies on the side of a mountain that converge at a lower level where the village of Tarseen was.
April 2023’s civil war between the Sudanese army and the RSF has plunged the country into famine and has led to accusations of genocide in the western Darfur region.
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Factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, which controls the area where the landslide occurred, have pledged to fight alongside the Sudanese military against the RSF.
Multiple Darfuris believe the RSF and allied militias have waged a war aimed at transforming the ethnically mixed region into an Arab-ruled domain.
