Sudan landslide kills over 1,000 in Darfur’s Marra Mountains

At least 1,000 people have been killed in a massive landslide that wiped out an entire village in Sudan’s western Darfur region, according to the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A).

The landslide struck on August 31 in the Marra Mountains after days of heavy rainfall, the rebel group led by Abdelwahid Mohamed Nour said in a statement released on September 1. Only one person is reported to have survived, according to Reuters. 

“The village has now been completely levelled to the ground,” the SLM/A said, appealing to the United Nations and international aid agencies to assist in recovering the bodies of victims, which include men, women and children.

The area lies in territory controlled by the movement, which has been a long-standing faction in the Darfur conflict. Many of the victims were civilians who had fled fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in North Darfur and sought refuge in the mountains.

Conditions in the region remain dire, with shortages of food and medicine compounding the humanitarian crisis. Sudan’s two-year civil war has already displaced millions of people, pushed more than half of the population into severe hunger, and left the North Darfur state capital, Al-Fashir, under heavy attack.

By Sabina Mammadli