Over 1,000 reported dead in Sudan landslide

An armed faction in Sudan says more than 1,000 people were killed when a landslide buried a village after days of heavy rain.

In a statement on Monday, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) said the village of Tirsin in Central Darfur’s Amo district, along the Jebel Marra mountains, was destroyed by landslides after four days of heavy rain. The group said nearly all residents were killed, with only one survivor.

“The information indicates that the entire population of the village perished, estimated at more than one thousand people, with only one survivor,” the group said. It called on the United Nations, regional bodies, and humanitarian organizations to assist with recovering the bodies.

Independent confirmation of the group’s claim was not immediately available.

Jebel Marra has been a stronghold of the SLM/A, a faction that has fought the Sudanese government in the Darfur conflict since the early 2000s.

The area has seen repeated violence during Sudan’s ongoing civil war, which escalated in April 2023 when the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces turned their weapons on each other, plunging the country into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.