Rescuers in Sudan’s Jebel Marra said Thursday they have recovered and buried more than 370 bodies after a landslide wiped out the village of Tarsin, with the UN warning the death toll could reach 1,000 as access remains severely constrained.
Ibrahim Hasbullah of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) said volunteers are still digging through mud and shattered rock by hand, with many victims trapped under boulders or swept away by floodwaters. The group’s footage shows makeshift burials on a hillside and residents using shovels and picks to clear debris.
The landslide struck on Aug. 31 after days of torrential rain. Tarsin sits high in the Jebel Marra massif, in a deep gorge of fragile volcanic soils that are prone to failure when saturated, the SLM said. The UN’s humanitarian office has put preliminary fatalities between 300 and 1,000, noting the remoteness of the site.
Relief teams launched a rapid assessment on Thursday, reaching the area partly by donkey. The UN said about 150 people from Tarsin and nearby hamlets have been displaced, with emergency kits, food and mobile health services targeting up to 750 people amid continuing rain.
Initial SLM reports said only one person survived; the group later shared video it said showed another survivor at the site. With roads impassable, recovery operations are being led by local residents, SLM members and the area’s emergency room volunteers.
There is confusion over the village’s administrative location: local authorities and SLM place it in Central Darfur, while a UN flash alert situates it in Sharg Aj Jabal locality on the South Darfur side of Jebel Marra—reflecting how the mountain range straddles state lines.
Reuters reported that SLM appealed for international help, and the Nyala-based TASIS government has already sent relief and pledged to facilitate further deliveries.
Jebel Marra has become a refuge for families fleeing fighting in El Fasher and elsewhere; aid groups say the disaster compounds hunger, disease and displacement across Darfur during peak rainy season. A smaller landslide killed at least 19 people in the area in 2018.
