An armed group that controls part of western Sudan appealed yesterday for foreign help in recovering bodies and rescuing residents from torrential rain, after it said at least 1,000 people were killed when a landslide buried a mountain village.
Only one person survived the destruction of the village of Tarseen in the mountainous Jebel Marra area of the Darfur region, said the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army.
SLM/A, which has long controlled and governed an autonomous portion of Jebel Marra, appealed to the United Nations and international aid agencies to help collect the bodies of victims, including men, women and children.
“Tarseen, famed for its citrus production, has now been completely levelled to the ground,” the group said in a statement. Continuing rains have made travel in the region difficult and could impede any rescue or aid efforts.
“Nearby villagers are overwhelmed with fear that a similar fate might befall them if the ... torrential rainfall persists, which underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive evacuation plan and provision of emergency shelter,” the group’s leader, Abdelwahid Mohamed Nur, said in a separate appeal.
A statement by the UN’s resident coordinator put the death toll at between 300 and 1,000, citing local reports.
Arjimand Hussain, regional response manager for the development group Plan International, said the last 45 km of the route to Tarseen were impassable to motor vehicles and could only be negotiated on foot or by donkey.
Nine bodies were recovered by volunteers, said Abdelhafiz Ali from the Jebel Marra Emergency Room, who noted that the village had hosted hundreds of people displaced by fighting.
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