A landslide has destroyed an entire village in Sudan’s western Darfur region, killing an estimated 1,000 people, according to a rebel group that controls the area.
According to news agencies, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) issued a statement late on Monday reporting the disaster in the Marra Mountains area of Darfur.
SLM/A stated that the landslide occurred on Sunday, following days of heavy rainfall in the area, and the village of Tarasin was “completely levelled to the ground”, leaving only one survivor.
“Initial information indicates the death of all village residents, estimated to be more than one thousand individuals, with only one survivor,” the group said in a statement.
SLM/A also appealed to the United Nations and international aid agencies for assistance in recovering the bodies of victims, including children.
Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall, reporting from Khartoum, said sources told him about the difficulty in getting help in retrieving bodies of people who have been buried following the landslide and giving them a proper burial.
“That’s going to take a long time, and maybe it won’t even take place if there are no international teams that are specialised in these types of activities,” he said.
The affected area cannot be reached by car or any other means of land transport, which is why people often seek shelter in this mountainous region in times of war, Vall added.
“Those villages are actually many in number and are crowded with people. Some of them are displaced from other parts of Darfur.”
Source: AJ
