Rescuers recover 270 bodies from debris of Sudan landslide

Remote mountain village wiped out in disaster, with aid agencies struggling for access

People inspect the debris after the landslide in Tersin. AFP

Rescuers have retrieved 270 bodies from the debris after a landslide wiped out a remote mountain village in western Sudan, the rebel group controlling the area has said.

The village of Tersin was hit on Sunday after a week of heavy rain in the Marra Mountains region of Darfur. An estimated 1,000 people were killed in what is believed to be among the deadliest natural disasters to ever hit the country.

There was one survivor, said armed group the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM). A faction of the group called Abdulwahid Al Nur told AFP that hundreds of people remain trapped under mud.

A satellite image shows the mud and debris that have covered Tersin village, in the Marra Mountains. AFP

“So far, around 270 bodies have been recovered and buried,” said Mogeeb Al Zubeir, who heads the civilian authority in SLM-controlled territory. Dead livestock lie buried in thick sludge, he added.

“No humanitarian organisation has arrived yet,” Mr Al Zubeir said, while locals and SLM members were organising rescue efforts with limited resources.

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the area hit was “extremely hard to reach” and the death toll and full scale of the tragedy have yet to be confirmed.

“Between 300 and 1,000 people may have lost their lives,” said Luca Renda, the UN's humanitarian co-ordinator in Sudan.

The Marra Mountains area is remote and hard to reach. AFP

The Marra Mountains area is a Unesco World Heritage site located in a volcanic region with peaks that reach up to 3,000 metres.

Hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge in the area after fleeing fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who are battling for territory in the country's two-year civil war.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced more than 13 million and caused a grave humanitarian crisis that has left half of Sudan's 50 million people hungry. The SLM has mostly stayed neutral in the fighting.

The landslide took place at the height of Sudan’s flooding season, which runs from July to October. Widespread damage has been reported in other areas of the country in recent weeks, including the village of Sofia in South Darfur province. About 100 houses were destroyed on Sunday in the village, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

In 2018, a smaller landslide in the Marra Mountains area killed at least 19 people and injured dozens.

Much of Darfur, including the area where the landslide occurred, remains largely inaccessible to international aid organisations because of the civil war. The violence has severely limited the delivery of humanitarian supplies.

Arjimand Hussain, regional response manager with Plan International, one of the few NGOs operating in Darfur, said the group, along with the UN, plans to send teams to Tersin in the coming days, but that heavy rain has made roads inaccessible.

“The whole humanitarian community is feeling helpless at the moment,” he said.

Pope Leo XIV spoke of the tragedy during his weekly address on Wednesday, saying it had left “behind pain and despair”.