270 Bodies Recovered from Tarsin Village Landslide Victims; Hundreds Still Trapped Under the Rubble

Rescue teams have recovered 270 bodies from the mud after a landslide destroyed a remote village in Sudan’s Darfur region, according to the head of the civilian administration in areas controlled by the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).

Heavy rains triggered the landslide that wiped out the village of Tarsin in the Jebel Marra area, the SLM led by Abdul Wahid al-Nur reported.

The United Nations, citing field sources, said between 300 and 1,000 people may have been killed in the landslide, but the full scale of the disaster remains unclear due to the difficulty of accessing the area.

Hundreds Still Under the Rubble

Mujib al-Rahman Mohammed al-Zubair, head of the civilian administration in SLM-controlled areas, told AFP via satellite phone from Jebel Marra:

> “So far, 270 bodies of victims have been recovered and buried. Hundreds remain under the rubble that covered homes and large areas of farmland.”

Large numbers of livestock were killed in the mud, and water sources have been damaged, he said.

Al-Zubair added, “No humanitarian organization has arrived so far,” explaining that rescue operations are being carried out by local residents and the SLM with very limited resources.

Challenges Facing Volunteers

He said that upon arriving in the village on Wednesday,

> “I found the disaster bigger than I imagined.”

Footage released by the armed group on Wednesday showed volunteers digging through mud and debris with their bare hands to retrieve bodies.

Preliminary estimates from the group suggest that nearly all of the roughly 1,000 residents of the village were killed, with only one survivor reported.

Displacement Continues

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated that around 150 people have fled Tarsin and neighboring villages following the disaster.

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday called for a “coordinated response” to the humanitarian catastrophe, which has brought “suffering and despair” to Sudan, already ravaged by a brutal civil war.

Fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands of people since April 2023 and displaced more than 14 million.

The Sudan Liberation Movement, which controls parts of Jebel Marra, has largely remained outside of the conflict, but hundreds of thousands have sought refuge in its territories to escape violence.

The affected Jebel Marra area lies southwest of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, which has been under RSF siege for over a year. The region is highly prone to landslides, especially during the rainy season, which peaks every August.