SUDAN WATCH: famine

Showing posts with label famine. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 02, 2025

Hundreds killed in Sudan landslide, UN says. BBC Verify Live is looking at checks on video and images

EARLY this morning, BBC Verify Live's editor, Rob Corp, writes: “Our Africa specialist is looking at checks on video and images following a landslide in the Darfur region of western Sudan which local officials say has killed at least 1,000 people.”

You can read more about that story here (early version copied here below).

Note, BBC Verify uses open-source intelligence, satellite imagery, fact-checking and data analysis to help report complex stories.

This feed is where they post their work throughout the day.

Get in touch with BBC Verify by following this link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/send/u179565631

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Report from BBC News

By James Chater

BBC News

Published Tuesday 2 September 2025, 02:59 BST

Updated around 09:00 BST - full copy:

Hundreds killed in Sudan landslide, UN says

IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS

Image caption, More than 800,000 have fled the western Darfur region, where the landslide occurred, since conflict erupted in 2023

A landslide has killed at least 370 people in the remote Marra Mountains in western Sudan, a UN official has told the BBC.

Antoine Gérard, the UN's deputy humanitarian co-ordinator for Sudan, 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.

Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, the armed group in control of the affected area, had earlier said that at least 1,000 people had died.

Days of heavy rain triggered the landslide on Sunday, which left just one survivor and "levelled" much of the village of Tarasin, the group said in a statement.

The movement has appealed for humanitarian assistance from the UN and other regional and international organisations.

Getting aid quickly to the area would be difficult, Mr Gérard 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 war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) forced them from their homes.

Darfur's army-aligned governor, Minni Minnawi, called the landslide a "humanitarian tragedy".

"We appeal to international humanitarian organisations to urgently intervene and provide support and assistance at this critical moment, for the tragedy is greater than what our people can bear alone," he said in a statement quoted by the AFP news agency.

Pictures show two gullies on the side of a mountain which converge at a lower level where the village of Tarasin was.

The civil war that broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF has plunged the country into famine and has led to accusations of genocide in the western Darfur region.

Estimates for the death toll from the civil war vary significantly, but a US official last year estimated up to 150,000 people had been killed since hostilities began in 2023. About 12 million have fled their homes.

Factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, which controls the area where the landslide occurred, have pledged to fight alongside the Sudanese military against the RSF.

Many Darfuris believe the RSF and allied militias have waged a war aimed at transforming the ethnically mixed region into an Arab-ruled domain.

Additional reporting by Anne Soy.

View original: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdj2jygzzk9o

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SNIPPETS from Bing news search "Sudan" 12:01 BST:

AP NEWS 3hr

A landslide in Sudan’s Darfur wipes out a village, killing more than 1,000 people

A landslide has wiped out a village in Sudan's Darfur region, killing an estimated 1,000 people. A rebel group controlling ...

CBS NEWS 4h

Landslide levels village in Sudan's Darfur region, kills roughly 1,000 but one person survived, rebel group controlling area says

A landslide wiped out a village in Sudan 's Darfur region, killing an estimated 1,000 people, a rebel group controlling the ...

USA TODAY 9h

Over 1,000 killed in landslide in western Sudan village

At least 1,000 were killed in a landslide that destroyed a village in the Marra Mountains area of western Sudan, leaving only ...

FOX NEWS 2h

Landslide kills over 1,000 people and levels entire village in Sudan's Central Darfur

Devastating landslide completely levels Tarasin Village in Sudan's Central Darfur, with rebel group reporting over 1,000 deaths and only one survivor.

BBC NEWS 8h

At least 1,000 killed in Sudan landslide, rebel group says

The landslide on Sunday happened after heavy rain and "levelled" a remote mountainous village, the group says.

End

Saturday, July 19, 2025

Sudan's former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok says recent military gains won't end the country's conflict

HAMDOK, a 69-year-old former economist who now leads a civilian coalition from exile, called the idea that the conflict was drawing down “total nonsense.” The idea that reconstruction can begin in Khartoum while fighting rages elsewhere is “absolutely ridiculous,” he said.

“Any attempt at creating a government in Sudan today is fake. It is irrelevant,” he said, arguing that lasting peace can't be secured without addressing the root causes of the war. Read more.

From The Associated Press (AP)

By SAM METZ

North Africa reporter for AP

Dated 05 June 2025; 2:06 AM BST - full copy:

Former Prime Minister Hamdok says the military’s recent gains won’t end Sudan’s civil war

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok speaks during a session of the summit to support Sudan, at the Grand Palais Ephemere in Paris on May 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, Pool, File)

MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP) — Sudan’s former prime minister on Wednesday dismissed the military’s moves to form a new government as “fake,” saying its recent victories in recapturing the capital Khartoum and other territory will not end the country’s two-year civil war.

In a rare interview with The Associated Press, Abdalla Hamdok said no military victory, in Khartoum or elsewhere, could end the war that has killed tens of thousands and driven millions from their homes.

“Whether Khartoum is captured or not captured, it’s irrelevant,” Hamdok said on the sidelines of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s governance conference in Morocco. “There is no military solution to this. No side will be able to have outright victory.”

Hamdok became Sudan’s first civilian prime minister after decades of military rule in 2019, trying to lead a democratic transition. He resigned in January 2022 after a turbulent stretch in which he was ousted in a coup and briefly reinstated amid international pressure.

The following year, warring generals plunged the country into civil war. Sudan today bears the grim distinction of being home to some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has left at least 24,000 dead, though many believe the true toll is far worse.

Both sides stand accused of war crimes.

The RSF, with roots in Darfur’s notorious Janjaweed militia, has been accused of carrying out genocide. The army is accused of unleashing chemical weapons and targeting civilians where they live.

The war has driven about 13 million people from their homes, including 4 million who have crossed into neighboring countries. Famine is setting in and cholera is sweeping through.

The military recaptured the Khartoum area from the RSF in March, as well as some surrounding territory. Army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan has framed the advances as a major turning point in the conflict.

Last month, he appointed a new prime minister, Kamil al-Taib Idris, for the first time since the war began, tasked with forming a new government. But the fighting has continued. The RSF has regrouped in its stronghold in Darfur and made advances elsewhere, including in Kordofan.

Hamdok, a 69-year-old former economist who now leads a civilian coalition from exile, called the idea that the conflict was drawing down “total nonsense.” The idea that reconstruction can begin in Khartoum while fighting rages elsewhere is “absolutely ridiculous,” he said.

“Any attempt at creating a government in Sudan today is fake. It is irrelevant,” he said, arguing that lasting peace can’t be secured without addressing the root causes of the war.

Hamdok said a ceasefire and a credible process to restore democratic, civilian rule would need to confront Sudan’s deep inequalities, including uneven development, issues among different identity groups and questions about the role of religion in government.

“Trusting the soldiers to bring democracy is a false pretense,” he added.

Though rooted in longstanding divisions, the war has been supercharged by foreign powers accused of arming both sides.

Pro-democracy groups, including Hamdok’s Somoud coalition, have condemned atrocities committed by both the army and the RSF. Hamdok, however, has avoided accusing the United Arab Emirates of supplying weapons to the RSF, even amid international scrutiny and an investigation from a U.N. panel of experts.

On Wednesday, he rebuffed AP questions about weapons coming from the UAE. He said those who singled out the Gulf state while ignoring others accused of backing the army, including Iran, were “pushing a narrative.”

“What we would like to see is anybody who is supplying arms to any side to stop,” he said.

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Sudan: ICC believes war crimes & crimes against humanity are taking place now in Darfur. 5 killed in aid convoy attack. Fighting intensifies in Kordofan

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan told the Security Council in January that there were grounds to believe both government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force, may be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Darfur.

Deputy prosecutor Shameem Khan, who is not related, said the ICC has closely tracked reports in recent weeks of the dire situation in North Darfur, whose capital El Fasher is besieged by RSF and their affiliates.

The RSF, which controls the capitals of all other states in Darfur, has also attacked famine-hit Zamzam and other camps for displaced Sudanese in North Darfur.

“On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear, we have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur,” Khan told the council.

This conclusion, she said, is based on documentary, testimonial and digital evidence collected by ICC investigators during the past six months, including at refugee camps in neighboring Chad. Over 7,000 items of evidence have been collected to date, she said.

Khan emphasized to the council and to victims that the ICC considers the situation in Darfur “of the utmost importance” and will not be deterred until justice is delivered to the perpetrators.

Khan said those in Darfur now “inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population” should know that while they may feel a sense of impunity, Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb is currently on trial and the ICC hopes it will be the first of many.

“However, we also have a duty of confidentiality to the court,” Khan said. “I am not able to share more details of the nature of our progress or of specific outcomes hoped for. I can only assure you that the progress we have made is concrete, positive and significant.”

Read more in this report from The Associated Press
BY EDITH M. LEDERER
Dated 11 July 2025; 12:22 AM BST - full copy:

ICC believes war crimes and crimes against humanity are taking place now in Sudan’s Darfur region

The United Nations flag flies on a stormy day at the U.N. during the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

This June 2023 photo provided by the World Food Program shows internally displaced persons at the Wad Almajzoub farm camp in Wad Medani, Gezira state, Sudan. (Ala Kheir/U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs via AP)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The International Criminal Court believes war crimes and crimes against humanity are continuing to take place in Sudan’s vast western Darfur region where civil war has raged for more than two years, the tribunal’s deputy prosecutor said Thursday.

Nazhat Shameem Khan told the U.N. Security Council that the depth of suffering and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur “has reached an intolerable state,” with famine escalating and hospitals, humanitarian convoys and other civilian infrastructure being targeted.

“People are being deprived of water and food,” she said. “Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized. Abductions for ransom or to bolster the ranks of armed groups have become common practice.”

“And yet we should not be under any illusion,” Shameem Khan warned the U.N.’s most powerful body. “Things can still get worse.”

Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including Darfur. Some 40,000 people have been killed and nearly 13 million displaced, including to other countries, according to U.N. agencies.

The Biden administration, just before it left office in January, determined that the RSF and its proxies were committing genocide.

Karim Khan has stepped down temporarily as the ICC chief prosecutor pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, which he categorically denies.

The RSF, which controls the capitals of all other states in Darfur, has also attacked famine-hit Zamzam and other camps for displaced Sudanese in North Darfur.

Khan emphasized to the council and to victims that the ICC considers the situation in Darfur “of the utmost importance” and will not be deterred until justice is delivered to the perpetrators.

Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias, against populations that identify as Central or East African. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.