The UN says it is sending assistance to survivors of a landslide that killed at least 370 people in the remote Marra Mountains in western Sudan’s Darfur region.
Luca Renda, acting UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, told the BBC that they were sending rescuers, food and other aid, and would get a clearer picture soon.
The armed group in control of the affected area, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), had earlier said as many as 1,000 people could have died. Nine bodies have been recovered by a local rescue team.
Days of heavy rain triggered the landslide on Sunday, which left just one survivor and “levelled” much of the village of Tarseen, the group said in a statement.
Antoine Gérard, the UN’s deputy humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, gave the figure of 370 deaths, but said that it was hard to assess the scale of the incident or the exact death toll as the area was very hard to reach.
The SLM/A has appealed for humanitarian assistance from the UN and other regional and international organizations.
Speaking to the BBC Newsday program on Wednesday, the group’s leader Abdel Wahid Mohamed al-Nur defended his group’s statement about the number of people killed, which some reports have disputed.
He said while the place had originally been “empty”, many people had moved to the “naturally protective” area for safety in the wake of the civil war that has ravaged the country in the last couple of years. The SLM/A has stayed neutral in that conflict.
“People on the ground have confirmed [the death toll]. We have a civil authority there and they estimate above 1,000 people are dead or at least they are under the mud.”
“Those people who are talking, they are talking according to their past knowledge, but we are talking about recent knowledge,” he said.
The SLM/A leader said urgent rescue efforts were needed and called for humanitarian aid, including food and medical supplies, for all of those affected, adding that the disaster had a deep psychological impact on survivors.
A local team coordinating rescue efforts told the BBC that they had recovered nine bodies so far, and the search for the missing was continuing.
Abdul Hafeez Ali, head of the Coordinating Council of the Tawila and Jebel Marra Emergency Room, said their rescue efforts were being hampered by a number of limitations.
“Unfortunately, due to limited resources, we have not been able to carry out full-scale rescue operations. Although a support team has already arrived in Sudan, ongoing heavy rains and extremely rough terrain have made access to the affected area very difficult,” he said, adding that he understood the village was home to about 300 families.
Mr Renda told the BBC on Wednesday that they were hoping the number of victims was not as high as the SLM/A says.
He said they were trying to reach the area, sending tents, food, water and emergency kits, and the situation would be clearer in the coming hours.
“We actually activated our rescue teams and we hope to be able to provide immediate assistance over the next few hours and days to come,” he said.
The UN official acknowledged the limited presence of national and international organizations in the area but said they expected rescue teams to arrive by air within hours. He said plans were under way to mobilize nearby towns and a hospital to help.
Getting aid quickly to the area would be difficult, Mr Gérard had earlier said.
“We do not have helicopters; everything goes in vehicles on very bumpy roads. It takes time and it is the rainy season – sometimes we have to wait hours, maybe a day or two to cross a valley… bringing in trucks with commodities will be a challenge.”
Many residents from North Darfur state had sought refuge in the Marra Mountains region, after the war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) forced them from their homes.
