The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army says only one person survived the disaster in Tarasin

A huge landslide in remote western Sudan triggered by days of heavy rain killed up to 1,000 people, a major armed and political group in the war-torn African country has reported.

The incident on Sunday wiped out the entire village of Tarasin in the Marra Mountains of Darfur, leaving only "a single survivor," the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) said in a statement on Tuesday.

SLM/A leader Abdel Wahid al-Nur called the incident a "horrific humanitarian disaster" and appealed to the United Nations and other regional and international organizations to help recover the bodies of victims and support neighboring communities "overwhelmed with fear."

"The scale and magnitude of the disaster are immense and defy description which necessitate putting at work and coordinating efforts of local, regional and international actors, including the deployment of specialized rescue teams to recover bodies from beneath the rocky debris," he said.

Footage shows two deep channels carved by fast-moving water and mud on the mountainside, converging at a lower point where the village of Tarasin once stood.

Many residents of North Darfur have sought shelter in the Marra Mountains after fleeing the brutal war between the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has raged since mid-April 2023. Late last month, a Sudanese doctors' association warned that thousands of people in Darfur are at risk of starvation and face a critical shortage of life-saving medicines amid continuous attacks on the regional capital, El Fasher.

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Adam Rijal, spokesman for the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees in Sudan, said the civilian aid group is following the "tragedy" in Tarasin with "deep sadness and sorrow," adding that it should remind Sudanese citizens of the "need to unite to confront its repercussions."

The landslide is the deadliest disaster to strike Darfur in recent years. In 2018, the village of Turba experienced a similar tragedy that left hundreds dead and several others wounded, Rijal said in a statement on Tuesday.