A MASSIVE landslide in Sudan’s western Darfur region has killed more than 1,000 people, a UN official has told the BBC.
Antoine Gérard, the UN’s deputy humanitarian co-ordinator for Sudan, said that it was hard to assess the scale of the incident or the exact death toll as the area was very hard to reach.
Days of heavy rain triggered the landslide on Sunday, which left just one survivor and “levelled” much of the village of Tarseen, the group said in a statement.
Getting aid quickly to the area would be difficult, Mr Gérard said.
“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.”
Many 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.
Darfur’s army-aligned governor, Minni Minnawi, called 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.
The head of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, called on the warring parties to “to silence the guns and unite in facilitating the swift and effective delivery of emergency humanitarian assistance to those in need”.
Pictures show two gullies on the side of a mountain which converge at a lower level where the village of Tarseen was.
The civil war that broke out in April 2023 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.
Estimates for the death toll from the civil war vary significantly, but a US official last year estimated up to 150,000 people had been killed since hostilities began in 2023. About 12 million have fled their homes.
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.
Many Darfuris believe the RSF and allied militias have waged a war aimed at transforming the ethnically mixed region into an Arab-ruled domain.