CAIRO, Sept 2, (AP): A landslide wiped out a village in Sudan ’s western region of Darfur, killing an estimated 1,000 people in one of the deadliest natural disasters in the African country’s recent history, a rebel group controlling the area said late Monday. The tragedy happened Sunday in the village of Tarasin in Central Darfur’s Marrah Mountains after days of heavy rainfall in late August, the Sudan Liberation Movement-Army said in a statement.

"Initial information indicates the death of all village residents, estimated to be more than one thousand people. Only one person survived,” the statement read. The village was "completely leveled to the ground,” the group said, appealing to the UN and international aid groups for help to recover the bodies. Footage shared by the Marrah Mountains news outlet showed a flattened area between mountain ranges with a group of people searching the area.

The tragedy came as a devastating civil war has engulfed Sudan after tensions between the country’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open fighting in April 2023 in the capital, Khartoum and elsewhere in the country. Most of the conflict-stricken Darfur region has become mostly inaccessible for the UN and aid groups, given crippling restrictions and fighting between Sudan's military and the RSF.

Aid group Doctors Without Borders has warned that multiple communities in Darfur, including the Marrah Mountains, have been cut off after more than two years of war and isolation, describing these areas as "a black hole" in Sudan’s humanitarian response. It said in a July report that people in these communities have been "deprived from adequate assistance and snubbed by aid actors … despite enduring horrid conditions.”

The Sudan Liberation Movement-Army, centered in the Marrah Mountains area, is one of multiple rebel groups active in the Darfur and Kordofan regions. It hasn’t taken sides in the war. The Marrah Mountains are a rugged volcanic chain extending for 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of el-Fasher, an epicenter of fighting between the military and the RSF. The area has turned into a hub for displaced families fleeing fighting in and around el-Fasher.