People use bare hands to dig out victims of devastating landslide
Port Sudan, Sudan (PANA) - The first international humanitarian organisation to reach the area hit by landslide one week ago says it has found devastating scenes where people are using their bare hands to dig out those killed and possible survivors under huge tons of mud and rocks.
Save the Children, said in a statement published on its website that the torrential rains that caused the landslide in the village of Tarsain in the Marrah Mountains in the western region of Darfur last Sunday, has cut off road access.
Save the Children, the first to reach the area, said they found villagers in the remote village using their bare hands to try to reach people buried in the landslide as the first emergency workers arrived, on donkeys, to find mass devastation with hundreds dead.
The landslide cut off road access and it was only on Thursday that the first aid workers travelling on a herd of donkeys managed to reach the site with emergency supplies.
Heavy rainfall continuing for over 36 hours and two further landslides hitting the area since last Sunday had also hampered rescue efforts. Lightning from storms has sparked fires across the surrounding mountains, causing further destruction as well as displacing residents.
The statement said Save the Children staff, who took over 6 hours to cover 22 kms of rocky, muddy terrain from their office in Golo to reach the village, have set up a mobile health clinic and are distributing medication to families, as they start to assess the impact of the landslide and the number of people killed, injured, and displaced.
The team reported scenes of destruction and devastation, with an urgent need for shelter, food, medicines and other equipment, with children always the most impacted in any disaster.
Francesco Lanino, Deputy Country Director of Programmes and Operations for Save the Children in Sudan, is coordinating the operation and in direct contact with the team in Tarsain.
The statement quoted Lanino as saying: “Teams on the ground are reporting that the landslide is one of the most tragic and large-scale disasters in the region’s history."
So far, at least 373 bodies have been recovered, according to the Head of the Civil Authority, and 1,000 lives may have been lost, including an estimated 200 children, with search and rescue operations still underway.
People are excavating by hand since there are no tools or machinery available. The Tarsain area is made up of five villages, and in the village most severely affected by the landslide, there is only one known survivor. Across all five villages there are 150 survivors, including 40 children that are receiving medical and protection support from Save the Children.
He was quoted as stating that the Civil Authority is reporting around 5,000 livestock have also died in the disaster, and vast swathes of agricultural lands - critical for food and livelihoods – have been destroyed. Many of the survivors have fled to nearby villages, because there is nothing left of their homes and they are afraid of the ongoing movements in the ground.
Save the Childern said their teams are providing the basics but there is a desperate need for more of everything. “We call on the international community to step up and help families in their time of grave need in Sudan.”
-0- PANA MO/MA 7Sept2025
