A devastating natural disaster has deepened Sudan’s already overwhelming humanitarian crisis. On August 31, 2025, a massive landslide, triggered by weeks of relentless heavy rainfall, wiped the village of Tarsin off the map in the Jebel Marra mountains of Darfur. Entire families were buried alive under tons of earth and rock as their homes collapsed in seconds. Initial reports from local authorities and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), one of the organizations controlling the region, describe the scene as apocalyptic. Estimates suggest that over 1,000 people perished in a single morning, with only one survivor pulled from the rubble.
The tragedy is compounded by the fact that Tarsin had become a fragile refuge for families displaced by Sudan’s ongoing war. Those who had fled the brutality of fighting in Khartoum and Darfur sought safety in the mountain village, only to be engulfed by nature’s fury. In addition to the staggering loss of human life, the disaster wiped out over 5,000 livestock – a crucial source of food, income, and cultural survival for displaced pastoralist families. Vast agricultural lands were destroyed, undermining not only the village’s survival but also worsening Sudan’s nationwide hunger crisis.
The challenges facing emergency responders are immense. Tarsin is located in a remote, mountainous region with treacherous terrain, making access nearly impossible even in normal conditions. Continuous rainfall has made roads impassable, and the absence of functional infrastructure has forced aid workers to rely on donkeys to carry supplies through mud and debris. No heavy machinery has reached the area, meaning survivors and volunteers dig through the rubble with their bare hands and improvised tools in desperate attempts to recover bodies.
International humanitarian organizations have expressed alarm, but relief operations remain dangerously slow. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned that the disaster risks going largely unaddressed because of the intersection of natural catastrophe and armed conflict. Aid convoys require negotiation with armed actors to reach the region, further delaying lifesaving interventions. The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army has called on the international community to urgently intervene, declaring the landslide “a national tragedy that cannot be shouldered by a war-ravaged people alone.”
For Sudanese communities, the landslide is not an isolated misfortune but part of a broader cycle of vulnerability. Years of deforestation, soil erosion, and neglected infrastructure have made mountain villages like Tarsin highly susceptible to landslides. Climate change, with its intensification of rainfall and extreme weather events, has made such disasters more frequent and more deadly. In this sense, the obliteration of Tarsin embodies the collision between conflict, environmental degradation, and climate shocks, pushing already traumatized populations into deeper despair.
The obliteration of Tarsin thus stands as both a localized catastrophe and a symbol of Sudan’s broader unraveling – a nation where millions are already displaced, starving, and cut off from basic services, and where even nature itself now seems to conspire against survival.
Humanitarian abyss
The statistics on Sudan’s broader crisis are disturbing. Over 12 million people have been forcibly displaced since April 2023, of which over 5 million are children, making it the world’s largest child displacement crisis. More than half the population, 30.4 million people, are in need of humanitarian aid. Famine has been declared in at least five locations, with millions more on the brink of starvation.
The war, now in its third year, is a direct result of a power conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The conflict erupted on April 15, 2023, turning the capital, Khartoum, into a brutal battleground. But to understand the roots of this disaster, one must look back to the earlier conflict in Darfur. In the early 2000s, government-backed Janjaweed militias, from which the RSF later emerged, carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against communities like the Masalit, leading to allegations of genocide. The current conflict has reopened these old wounds, with new waves of ethnically motivated attacks and horrific revenge killings reported across the country.
The fighting has driven families from their homes, scattering them across the country and into neighboring states. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) have documented the harrowing journeys of those who fled. Mohammed, a young man who ran an electronics store in Khartoum, was trapped in his apartment for 15 days as constant fighting raged outside. He recalled witnessing unimaginable horrors on his two-day bus journey to Egypt, where he was forced to start a new life after losing his business and his home. Sara, a mother of four, was also caught in the capital’s crossfire, shielding her children from the sounds of explosions and the terror of armed men going door-to-door, harassing men and raping women. For these families and millions of others, the war came as a shock. “I remembered there was a war in Darfur back when I was a child, but I didn’t think such a thing could happen in the capital,” Mohammed shared.
The humanitarian crisis extends far beyond displacement. Sudan is on the verge of becoming the world’s largest hunger crisis. The World Food Program (WFP) reports that roughly half of Sudan’s population – 25 million people – is facing extreme levels of hunger. The conflict has decimated agricultural production, blocked trade routes, and, most cruelly, been marked by the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid. The cost of basic food items like sorghum has increased by up to 460%, and families are reportedly resorting to eating animal fodder and food waste to survive.
Cholera emergency: when disease becomes a weapon
Sudan is now facing one of the world’s most severe cholera emergencies, a crisis magnified by war, displacement, and the breakdown of basic services. The disease, which is both preventable and treatable, has become a major killer due to the near-total collapse of the country’s public health infrastructure.
According to WHO, Sudan has been recording tens of thousands of suspected cholera cases since mid-2024, with an accelerating spike in 2025. The case fatality rate remains dangerously high, well above the global emergency threshold of 1%, signaling widespread lack of timely treatment and rehydration access. Transmission is strongest in crowded displacement camps, where contaminated water and poor sanitation create perfect conditions for the disease.
Read more: Cholera ravages Sudan’s war-torn capital
The health system is in ruins. Over 80% of hospitals in conflict areas are non-operational, with severe shortages of oral rehydration salts (ORS), IV fluids, and antibiotics. Attacks on health workers and the looting of pharmacies have left entire regions without trained personnel. Vaccination campaigns have been repeatedly interrupted by insecurity and lack of funding.
Meanwhile, destruction of water infrastructure in Darfur, Khartoum, and along the Nile corridor has left millions reliant on contaminated surface water. In displacement camps, families often share one latrine per 200 people, far below humanitarian standards. Women and children, tasked with fetching water, face heightened risks of both infection and gender-based violence.
Cholera disproportionately affects children under five, who are more vulnerable to dehydration and death. Malnutrition, already at catastrophic levels, further worsens outcomes. In several displacement settlements, child mortality from diarrheal disease has surpassed emergency thresholds.
The international response is dangerously inadequate. WHO and UNICEF have appealed for urgent support to expand cholera vaccination, WASH services, and emergency treatment centers, but funding shortfalls mean lifesaving campaigns are being scaled back. Humanitarian convoys with medical supplies have also faced systematic obstruction by armed groups, further delaying interventions.
Cholera, a disease of poverty and neglect, is now a marker of Sudan’s descent into humanitarian collapse. It is not simply a health crisis but a direct consequence of war, displacement, and the weaponization of deprivation.
A generation in ruins
The future of a generation is also at stake. The war has created an education crisis of unprecedented scale, leaving 19 million children out of school. Schools across the country have been repurposed as shelters for the displaced or have been damaged and destroyed. For many families, the threat of violence and displacement means their children’s education is an impossible dream. Khadija Adam Youssouf, a refugee in Chad, expressed her hope: “We will stay here, and our children will go to school.” But for countless others, the disruption is permanent, robbing them of the chance to build a better future. The crisis also puts children at heightened risk of being recruited as child soldiers.
As the war rages on, the international community’s response has been woefully insufficient. Organizations like UNICEF and the WFP are facing a massive funding gap. As of April 2025, UNICEF’s humanitarian funding requirements were 73% unmet. WFP needs an additional $650 million to continue its operations over the next six months. This lack of funding, combined with the deliberate obstruction of aid, means humanitarians are forced to make agonizing choices, like cutting the number of people receiving assistance or reducing rations.
The war in Sudan is a perfect storm of political ambition, ethnic animosity, and callous disregard for human life. The accounts of individuals and the data from global organizations paint a grim picture of a country and a people at a breaking point. Without an immediate and unfettered humanitarian access, an end to hostilities, and a renewed commitment from the international community, the catastrophe will only deepen. The people of Sudan, who have lost everything, cannot be left to navigate this crisis alone.
The post A country unraveling: Sudan’s struggle for survival amid disaster and war appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.
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