Aid workers on donkeys have delivered the first humanitarian supplies to survivors of a landslide that reportedly killed hundreds of people in a remote mountain village in Sudan's western Darfur region.
Heavy rains and flash floods that hit Tarasin village triggered the disaster on Sunday and have continued, meaning that donkeys are the only way to reach the affected families.
Families in Tarsin have lost everything. It took our team more than a full day on a rocky, muddy, and hilly route to reach this devastated community,” said Francesco Lanino, from the aid agency Save the Children.
The armed group in charge of the area put the number of dead at 1,000, however, the health ministry says only two bodies have been recovered. On Thursday, local civilian leaders stated that they had recovered and buried the bodies of hundreds of people.
We recovered 370 bodies and buried them. Others are still trapped under the rocks and some were carried away by floodwaters, said Ibrahim Suleiman, one of the local leaders in Daramo locality, in a video seen by the AFP news agency.
The SLM/A has remained neutral in the civil war that has ravaged Sudan for more than two years, and many people have escaped to the Marra Mountains area where the landslide occurred to flee the fighting.
Antoine Gérard, the UN's deputy humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, provided the figure of 370 deaths but mentioned that assessing the scale of the disaster and the exact death toll remains difficult due to accessibility issues in the area.
On Thursday, an emergency team of 11 staff riding donkeys delivered medical supplies, food, water, and tarpaulins to the affected communities in a journey that took over six hours, Save the Children reported. This team includes medical personnel, child protection experts, and mental health specialists, providing immediate care where needed.
As the situation in Tarasin deteriorates, calls for urgent international intervention grow, reflecting the catastrophic humanitarian situation exacerbated by ongoing conflict and adverse weather conditions.
About 150 people have been displaced from Tarsin and neighboring villages, with families now sheltering in nearby communities. The landslide has compounded a deepening humanitarian crisis, with 30 million people in Sudan already in need of assistance.
Heavy rains and floods have affected at least 21 areas across Sudan, increasing fears of disease outbreaks as experts predict that unusually wet conditions will continue well into September.
