A landslide of catastrophic scale has obliterated the village of Tarasin in Sudan’s western Darfur region, leaving more than 1,000 people dead and just a single survivor, according to the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM).
The tragedy unfolded on Sunday after relentless rains triggered the collapse of a mountainside in the Jebel Marra area. In a statement, SLM leader Abdulwahid al-Nur described the disaster as “massive and devastating,” with whole families buried beneath mud and debris. The group appealed to the United Nations and aid agencies to help retrieve bodies and provide urgent relief.
Photos released by the rebels showed an entire stretch of mountainside swept away trees uprooted, homes crushed, and what was once a thriving community reduced to a sea of brown mud and splintered beams.
The timing of the disaster is particularly grim. Sudan remains mired in a brutal conflict between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a war that has already displaced millions and triggered one of the world’s most acute humanitarian crises. Jebel Marra, controlled in part by the SLM, has become a refuge for those fleeing the violence but is now itself the scene of another calamity.
Geologists and local officials warn that the region, a rugged volcanic range stretching 160 kilometers southwest of El-Fasher, is especially vulnerable to landslides during the rainy season, which peaks in August. In 2018, a similar slide in nearby Toukoli killed at least 20 people, but nothing on the scale of the Tarasin catastrophe has been witnessed in recent memory.
With the village wiped off the map, aid groups face the daunting task of reaching survivors and retrieving the dead in a region already cut off by war and weather.
