Over a thousand people feared dead following landslide in the Darfur Region of Sudan.

Over a thousand people are feared to have died following a landslide which hit the village of Tarseen in the Mara Mountains in the Dafur Region of Sudan on Sunday 31 August 2025. The village is reported to have been completely destroyed by the landslide, with only a single known survivor having been found by local rescue teams. A United Nations humanitarian team in Sudan estimates that the village has a permanent population of about 370 people, however the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, a rebel group fighting for independence for Darfur which is the effective authority in the region, has claimed that as over a thousand people may have died, as about 300 families internally displaced by fighting within the region had taken shelter in the remote village.

Local rescue teams searching for survivors following a landslide which destroyed the village of Tarseen in the Darfur Region of Sudan on 31 August 2025. Sudan Liberation Movement/Army/AFP/Getty Images.

The landslide occurred following weeks of heavy rain in the region, associated with the annual wet season of southern Sudan. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall. The annual wet season lasts from June to September, and with rain typically falling in a series of extended very heavy rainfall events. This makes the region extremely prone to landslides and flooding, something compounded by the country's week infrastructure and frequent civil conflicts, which make its population extremely vulnerable to such events. Such extreme weather events have become worse in recent years, driven by rising global temperatures, something which is also causing increased aridity in the drier north of the country, further fuelling internal conflicts as different populations compete for resources. 

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Over 60 feared dead in Darfur gold mine collapse.

It is feared that more than 60 miners have lost their lives in a mine collapse in the remote Darfur region of northwest Sudan. The incident happened at the Jebel Amir mine in the north of the region on Monday 29 April 2013, but news of the incident only reached Khartoum on Thursday 3 May. The mine has a central shaft descending 60 m from the surface, with a number of side gantries. At the time of the incident 66 miners were officially working in the mine, but the real number present is likely to have been somewhat larger. Another 10 miners apparently descended into the pit to attempt to rescue their colleagues and were also trapped.

The approximate location of the Jebel Amir mine. Google Maps.

Gold has become Sudan's principle earner of foreign currency since the independence of South Sudan in 2011, which cut the country's oil revenues by 75%. This has provoked a goldrush in northern Darfur, where dozens of mines produce around 15 tonnes of gold per year. Despite the economic importance of the industry it is almost totally unregulated, with very little safety precautions in the mines and frequent fighting between rival ethnic groups. In January and February 2013 around 400 people were killed in ethnic clashes around Jebel Amir, with around 10 000 more being displaced by the fighting.

See also Miner killed by gas on Mindanao Island, Chilean court suspends work at the Pascua-Lama Gold Mine over entironmental concerns, Uranium mining to begin in Tanzania, Two Sierra Leonean artisanal miners killed by soil cave-in and 83 feared dead after Tibetan landslip.

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