UN reacts as Sudan landslide kills over 1,000

The United Nations (UN) says it is working to respond to a devastating landslide in Sudan’s Darfur region that buried an entire mountain village, killing as many as 1,000 people.

Heavy rain triggered the disaster on Sunday, August 31, 2025, flattening the village of Tarasin in the remote Jebel Marra range.

The rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM) faction, which controls the area, in a statement on Tuesday, disclosed that there was only one survivor.

“The United Nations and our humanitarian partners are mobilising to provide support to the affected population,” UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan Luca Renda said in a statement.

Citing sources on the ground, Renda said the death toll from the landslide was believed to be between 300 and 1,000.

The SLM faction led by Abdulwahid al-Nur had earlier estimated the death toll at more than 1,000 people.

“Initial information indicates the death of all village residents, estimated at more than 1,000 individuals, with only one survivor,” the group said, calling the landslide “massive and devastating”.

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It appealed to the UN and other aid organisations for help in recovering the dead from beneath the mud and debris.

“Masses of mud fell onto the village,” Nur told AFP via a messaging app.

“Our humanitarian teams and local residents are trying to retrieve the bodies, but the scale of the disaster is far greater than the resources available to us,” he said.

Images the SLM published on its website appeared to show vast swathes of the mountainside sheared away, with the village below buried under thick mud and uprooted trees.

Jebel Marra is a rugged volcanic range stretching about 160 kilometres (100 miles) southwest from North Darfur’s besieged state capital El-Fasher, which the RSF is pushing to capture after besieging it for more than a year.

The area, known for citrus production, is prone to landslides, particularly during the rainy season which peaks in August. A 2018 landslide in nearby Toukoli killed at least 20 people.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been ravaged by a war that erupted from a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people and driven more than 14 million from their homes, according to UN figures.

The Star