On September 1, both local and international media outlets reported a landslide in the village of Tarsin, Sharg Aj-Jabal (East Marra Mountain) locality, South Darfur State, near the border with Central Darfur State, citing a statement issued by the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army-Abdel Wahid (SLM/A-AW). However, the sharply conflicting reports regarding the death toll sparked a wave of controversy across social media platforms.
While SLM/A-AW claimed that “over one thousand people” perished, local sources, including relatives of the victims, insisted the number did not exceed two. In response, Atar launched a fact-finding effort to verify the incident, determine the actual death toll, and assess the media coverage.
This verification dossier presents a chronological account of events from September 1 through the late hours of September 4, 2025.
All times below are East Africa Time (EAT)
September 1, 2025
7:15pm
According to a post by @HkZuk (Dhul-Kifl), several Facebook accounts began sharing condolences for two individuals who had died in the village of Tarsin, west of Suni as a result of a landslide. These posts, made between 7:00 PM and 10:00 PM, included messages from relatives of the deceased, and none mentioned any additional fatalities.
Some of these posts noted that the landslide occurred on the evening of Sunday, August 31.
| Account | Post Link | Time Posted | Post Content (Translation) |
| Abdul Latif Adam Sharaf | Source | 7:15 PM | Passed away yesterday at 5pm: Al-Faki Ali, and my son-in-law Murtada. In Tarsin village, Jabal Marra region, west of Suni. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un (To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return). |
| Marra Mountain Satellite TV | Source | 7:29 PM | A landslide occurred in East Jabal Marra, in the village of Tarsin, west of Suni, claiming two lives. This could be a serious natural disaster, as heavy rainfall saturates the soil and increases the risk of landslides. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un. (To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return). |
| Fathalrahman Ali Mohammed Abdalnor | Source | 7:47 PM | Condolences to myself and my family in Jabal Marra, and to our comrades and friends in Sudan and abroad. May God forgive my father (Ali Mohammed Abdalnor) and my nephew Murtada Abboud, who died due to a mountain collapse on the night of Sunday, August 31, 2025. May their final abode be Paradise. |
| Sabeer Daraja | Source | 9:45 PM | Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un. (To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return.) With hearts full of faith in Allah’s will, today my mother’s brother, uncle Ali Mohammed Nour, passed away when the mountain collapsed on him in Tarsin, East Jabal Marra. We say only what pleases Allah. O Allah, forgive him, have mercy on him, and grant him Paradise. |
9:20pm
The SLM/A-AW released a statement via its official Facebook page under the name of its “civil authority in liberated territories,” mourning the deaths of residents in Tarsin village. The statement attributed the landslide to heavy rainfall at the end of August.
Most critically, it claimed that the entire population of the village—estimated at more than 1,000 people—had perished, with only one survivor. The Movement appealed to “the United Nations, regional and international organizations, and the living conscience of humanity” to assist in recovering the victims’ bodies from beneath the debris.
September 2, 2025
10:38am
The Transitional Sovereignty Council issued a condolence statement via its X (formerly Twitter) account, in which the President and Council members extended their sympathies to the victims of the “Jabal Marra landslide disaster.” The statement pledged to “mobilize all available resources to provide support and relief to the affected.”
11:53am
Sudan’s Prime Minister, Dr. Kamal Idris, together with his Cabinet, issued a statement expressing condolences for the “catastrophic landslide in Jabal Marra,” claiming it had “claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians.” This marked the first official estimate of the death toll from a recognized government authority. The statement reaffirmed the government’s commitment to provide “every possible form of aid and relief” and appealed to humanitarian organizations for immediate intervention.
12:15 PM
Abdel Wahid Mohammed Ahmed al-Nur, leader of the SLM/A-AW, published a bilingual (Arabic and English) statement on the Movement’s Facebook page, reaffirming that the village had been completely wiped out, with all of its approximately 1,000 residents dead except for one survivor.
He stressed the urgent need for local, regional, and international efforts, including the deployment of rescue teams, to recover the bodies. Al-Nur also appealed to the United Nations, its agencies, and humanitarian organizations to act swiftly to prevent similar tragedies in neighboring villages.
1:06–1:12 PM
Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, issued back-to-back statements in English and French confirming that the landslide had occurred on August 31 in Tarsin village, North Darfur. He cited a death toll of over 1,000, based on available reports. The AU statement further called on all Sudanese parties to lay down their arms and cooperate to facilitate humanitarian access.
2:43 PM
The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement via X, expressing solidarity with Sudan “in confronting the consequences of the landslide in the Jabal Marra region of Darfur,” and extended condolences to the families of the victims.
3:07 PM
Luca Renda, acting Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Sudan, released a statement via UN OCHA Sudan, expressing deep sorrow “in light of reports of a landslide in Tarsin, located in Jabal Marra on the South-Central Darfur border, on August 31.” He reported that casualty figures ranged between 300 and 1,000 and added that “an inter-agency assessment mission” was being organized to assess the situation and document the actual death toll in the coming days.
3:16 PM
In an interview with Al Arabiya Al-Hadath, Mohammed Abdelrahman Al-Nair, Head of the Media Sector and official spokesperson for the SLM/A-AW, stated that the Movement had developed a plan to evacuate villages at risk of further landslides but lacked the logistical capacity to implement it.
When asked whether the Movement would cooperate with the “Port Sudan government” or the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Al-Nair said such cooperation would depend on security and political assessments, noting that the area remains under the Movement’s control and outside the authority of both governments. He reaffirmed that their appeal was directed primarily to the international and regional humanitarian community.
6:12 PM
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement via X, offering condolences to the “government and people of the brotherly Republic of Sudan” for the victims of the Jabal Marra landslide, which it said resulted in “the death and injury of hundreds.”
The following morning, September 3 at 8:49am, the Ministry published a second statement noting that King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had sent official condolences to Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, President of the Transitional Sovereignty Council.
6:37 PM
Al Hadath Sudan, affiliated with Al Arabiya Al Hadath, reported, citing its correspondent, that 90 bodies had been recovered from the site of the landslide.
8:27 PM
A video emerged featuring a man claiming to be a resident of Tarsin village. The geographic background matched images previously shared on the SLM/A-AW’s page. Speaking in the Fur language, he reported that they had recovered one deceased person, with one more still unaccounted for, adding “In 30 years, we have never seen rains like this. They found one dead body; the rest are still buried under that mud.”
10:11 PM
The spokesperson for the SLM/A-AW reappeared on Al Arabiya Al-Hadath, a segment later reposted on the Movement’s social media the following day. He repeated the previously stated figures regarding victims and survivors, reaffirming that their appeal was directed primarily toward the international and regional community.
Al-Nair further noted that the population of villages under their control had significantly increased due to an influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs) fleeing the ongoing war, estimating the number of displaced persons under their jurisdiction at over seven million, a figure exceeding half of all war-related displacements across Sudan and neighboring countries.
He added that current village populations range between 1,000 and 3,000 residents, and that communication with Tarsin was only possible by sending people on foot or by animal over several hours to reach the nearest point with telecommunications access.
September 3, 2025
11:41 AM
In a video posted to Al Jazeera Sudan’s Facebook page, Mohammed Al-Nair, SLM/A-AW spokesperson, announced that 100 bodies had been recovered, while the Movement continued to maintain that the total death toll remained at approximately 1,000.
3:10 PM
According to a written statement posted on the Movement’s Facebook page, the Head of the Civil Authority in the Liberated Territories, upon arriving in the disaster-stricken area of Tarsin, declared that the number of the dead exceeded the figure given in the initial report.
“Several survivors from the village confirmed the Civil Authority’s statements, and appealed to the international community, the United Nations, and regional and international organizations for immediate humanitarian intervention,” the report, signed by Mohammed Al-Nair, added.
This statement implicitly contradicted earlier claims by the Movement, which had previously stated that only one survivor existed, while simultaneously increasing the estimated death toll despite unclear or inconsistent population data.
3:28–3:31 PM
The SLM/A-AW’s official page released multiple video testimonies, including one featuring a female survivor from Tarsin, and another showing volunteers from the Golo Emergency Room (part of the Jabal Marra and Tawila Emergency Rooms).
In one video, the death toll was estimated at over 1500, while livestock losses were reported to exceed 5,000 animals. The appeal to the international community was reiterated, and one video documented ongoing efforts to excavate bodies from the debris.
September 4, 2025
12:48 PM
BBC Verify published a satellite image obtained from Maxar Technologies, confirming the presence of a landslide at the reported site. The terrain in the imagery corresponded with video footage recorded on the ground.
However, Maxar’s analysis indicated that none of the nearby village centers appeared to have been destroyed, although a significant amount of debris was visible in the surrounding valleys and slopes. BBC Verify noted that this assessment cast doubt on the SLM/A-AW’s claim that the entire village and over 1,000 residents had perished.
3:24–5:39 PM
The SLM/A-AW’s page published a press release summarizing ongoing rescue operations in Tarsin. It stated that, “a short interview was conducted with a surviving resident of Tarsin, along with statements from the Civil Authority leadership, local traditional leaders, and emergency rooms. They described the catastrophe, the number of deceased, the bodies recovered and buried, and the deteriorating humanitarian situation.” Although the statement mentioned that videos of these interviews were attached, none were included in the post. Later, images from the village were shared, including one showing a cluster of graves.
9:20 PM
The Emergency Health Operations Centre of the Federal Ministry of Health issued an official statement, asserting that the death toll in Tarsin was two. The statement also reported significant livestock losses, still unquantified, the destruction of 500 orange trees, and the presence of humanitarian teams from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), International Medical Corps (IMC), Triangle Génération Humanitaire (TGH), and World Relief (WR) in the village.
11:42–11:49 PM
Following the Ministry of Health’s statement, the Movement rapidly escalated its online media activity, releasing eight posts in eight minutes—one video per minute. The most prominent post featured a testimony from a survivor.
| Video | Date | Link | Description |
| Statement by the Head of the Civil Authority in the Liberated Territories, Commander Mujib Al-Rahman Al-Zubair | Sept 4, 2025 | Source | Speaking in front of what he described as a «mass grave», Al-Zubair declared that the area was no longer safe and that the Movement had decided to relocate residents to a safer zone. A survivor, Mr Magbool Ibrahim, said, «On Sunday (August 31) at 5pm, disaster struck. The ground collapsed, and I survived... The landslides hit more than 20 locations. People were with me, but the water carried them off into the valley. I was in shock until the next day.» |
| Statement by a local elder visiting Tarsin | Sept 4, 2025 | Source | «Over a thousand dead and a broken spirit.» He also stated, «Some bodies are still in the valleys.» |
| Commander Mujib Al-Zubair (second video) | Sept 4, 2025 | Source | In front of the graves, we held funeral prayers for those we managed to recover from the rubble and reburied in these mass graves. |
| Scale of the Disaster | Sept 4, 2025 | Source | Visual documentation of the damage in the village. |
| Statement by Director of NIDO Organization | Sept 4, 2025 | Source | The director claimed they found around 1000 dead, with 300 bodies recovered. |
| Testimony by Chief Adam Suleiman Ibrahim | Sept 4, 2025 | Source | The traditional leader claimed the number of victims was «over a thousand.» |
| Additional testimony by a village elder | Sept 4, 2025 | Source | Gathered around graves, another elder, Chief Ibrahim Suleiman Hassaballah Suleiman of Dar Ammo, said, «After the disaster, we found around 370 bodies and buried them. The rest are still under the rocks, and the valley carried away many others.» |
| Extent of the destruction | Sept 4, 2025 | Source | Visual footage of the landslide zone. |
Media Coverage
The landslide in Tarsin received extensive international media attention and sparked widespread engagement on social media. On Platform X, the volume of posts on the incident grew rapidly:
- 15 hours post-initial coverage: 4.000 posts
- September 3, 2pm: 5.200 posts
- 5:30pm: 5.700 posts
- 7pm: 6.100 posts
- 10:38pm: 6.500 posts
Google Trends also recorded a surge in search interest for keywords such as “Tarsin Village” and “Sudan landslide” starting September 2, surpassing search interest in terms like “Al-Fashir” and “Sudan War”.
Global Interest: Data, Headlines, and Disinformation
Two Google Trends charts illustrate global interest in the incident. The first compares searches for: “Tarsin village”, “Al-Fashir”, “Sudanese Civil War 2025”. The second compares: “Sudan Landslide”, “Al-Fashir”, and “Sudanese Civil War”.
Both charts show a noticeable spike in interest in “Tarsin” and “Sudan Landslide” beginning September 2, indicating how quickly the narrative gained international attention, often ahead of confirmation.
The global media and the power of a single source
| News Outlet | Initial Publication Time | Update Time | Link | Initial Source | Reported Death Toll |
| Reuters | Sept 2, 4:41am | Sept 3, 7:43pm |
Reuters Reuters on X |
On X SLMA (via X) |
At least 1000 |
| Associated Press (AP) | Sept 2, 8:27am | Sept 3 | AP | SLMA (via X) | Around 1000 |
| AFP | Sept 2, 5:23am | — | AFP / Barron’s | An armed group | Over 1000 |
| Bloomberg | Sept 2, 8:28am | Same day, 8:20pm | Bloomberg | SLMA | 1000 |
| Al Jazeera English | Sept 2, 10:30am | — | Al Jazeera (X) | Armed group | More than 1000 |
Leading international news agencies, including Reuters, Associated Press (AP), AFP, Bloomberg, and Al Jazeera English, all based their initial reports on the SLM/A-AW’s statements. Notably, all these outlets published stories before any confirmation or denial from Sudan’s Sovereign Council. Three of the agencies later revised their articles to reflect updated information.
How we verified, and what we found
The Tarsin landslide highlights the dangers of decoupling journalism from data. Data, in isolation, can be weaponized, while journalism without verification may veer into rumor or exaggeration. Only the convergence of investigative reporting and verified data—drawing from satellite imagery, survivor testimonies, and open-source intelligence—can bring us closer to the truth.
As Atar‘s editor pursued verification of the claims that the entire village was buried and over 1000 people killed, she reviewed all available satellite imagery and open-source materials.
According to various statements, Tarsin is located in the Jabal Marra mountain range, Sharg Aj-Jabal locality, South Darfur, near the border with Central Darfur, west of the town of Suni. However, initial searches through the OCHA reference maps, Google Earth Pro, and Google Maps did not yield any results for a village named Tarsin, only Suni appeared.
The village’s coordinates were later found in a comment on a post by @yasseralfadol on X, where he mentioned using Alpine Quest (offline maps). The coordinates (24.38611895634287,13.040064368599488) revealed a small village east of Jabal Ammo, matching the general location described in SLM/A-AW’s statements.
Using Geojson.io, Atar confirmed that the coordinates indeed pointed to a village labeled “Tarsin” situated within the Ammo district, as per SLM/A-AW’s earlier claim.
From there, Atar analyzed the approximate number of houses, the village’s area, and the surrounding geographical features. Despite attempts to match the satellite imagery with photos and videos released by the SLM/A-AW, no definitive conclusion could be drawn about the scale of the destruction based on this analysis alone.
Efforts to obtain updated satellite imagery from the European Union’s Sentinel-2 satellite (via Copernicus platform) were hampered by cloud coverage: the September 2 image was fully obscured by clouds, and the September 4 image was partially covered, and though it showed the village area, its low resolution prevented assessment of any landslide damage. No clear, unobstructed imagery has been available since June 9.
Tarsin Area - Satellite imagery from the European Union’s Sentinel-2 satellite (via Copernicus platform)
Eyewitness accounts contradict the official story. On the morning of September 4, local sources told Atar’s correspondent in Nyala that the actual death toll was no more than two. The correspondent interviewed survivors who described the aftermath as catastrophic, with villagers left homeless and destitute after losing livestock, crops, shelter, clothing, and essential supplies.
“We lost everything: livestock, clothes, crops. We have no food, no water, no shelter. We urgently need food, water, blankets, mattresses, tarps, and essential medicines for the injured and sick. Children are suffering from hunger. And we are afraid the disaster might happen again,” one woman from the village said.
By the time of going to press, the SLM/A-AW had not released a list of names for the alleged 1,000 victims, nor published images of recovered bodies, or shown a burial site large enough to accommodate the claimed 370 burials.
Based on eyewitness accounts, statements preceding the SLM/A-AW’s first official post, inconsistencies in the Movement’s narrative, the Federal Ministry of Health’s report (citing two deaths), Maxar’s satellite analysis cited by BBC Verify, and independent assessment of satellite imagery, Atar leans toward skepticism regarding the SLM/A-AW’s claims about the death toll, number of survivors, and bodies recovered.
The most plausible scenario, supported by available evidence, is that two people died, and that the village was not completely erased, though it did suffer considerable losses in livestock and fruit trees.
What does this mean for Sudan?
The story of Tarsin reveals how victim counts can become instruments in media and political battles. The world’s first impression painted a catastrophic landslide that swallowed an entire village. Yet beneath that narrative lies a harsher truth: survivors remain without food, shelter, or medicine, their lives dependent on aid that may never arrive.
This case exposes the tension between statistical “truth” and lived experience. While various actors vie to control the narrative, survivors speak through empty stomachs and the fear of the next collapse.
In a war like Sudan’s, the battle is not only over territory but also over who controls the story: Who counts the dead? Who decides whether it was a natural disaster or human negligence? Who holds the authority to declare the truth?
These questions are not merely technical; they are political and moral. The reported death toll determines where aid flows, how history is written, and who is held accountable (or not).
Tarsin forces us to ask: How do we construct truth in times of war? Do we leave it to be torn between contradictory statements and political agendas? Or do we restore the value of investigative journalism, where numbers are grounded in human testimony and on-the-ground facts?
The answer may reshape how the world sees Tarsin, and determine the fate of countless other Sudanese villages, not only threatened by natural disasters, but also by contested narratives.
Atar will continue to monitor developments closely, awaiting the release of higher-resolution satellite imagery not obscured by cloud cover, in order to confirm, or disprove, the Movement’s version of events.
Our verification process of SLM/A narrative
A satellite image of Tarsin village captured via Google Earth Pro in 2023, partially obscured by cloud cover.
A view of Tarsin from the same source, taken in 2015 during the dry season—this is the reference image upon which our analysis is based.
The village’s dwellings appear clustered into three main groupings, separated by cultivated fields. Valleys cut through the area, skirting the edges of residential zones rather than passing directly through them. It is worth noting that the homes are likely situated at a higher elevation than the valley floor.
Although it is difficult to determine the exact number of houses—given the close proximity and overlapping structures typical of Sudanese villages—we estimate approximately fifty dwellings. Some structures may in fact be livestock enclosures. Even when excluding this scenario, and assuming that each home hosts two families due to displacement (with an average household size of 6–7 persons, as per national averages), the village population is estimated at around 700 residents.
By comparing this image with the Maxar satellite photo published by BBC Verify, we estimate that the landslide occurred within the area indicated by the oval-shaped marking.
A ground-level comparison reveals that the landslide originated from three distinct points along the mountain slope, before converging into the valley. This undermines the narrative that the entire village was swept away, given the spacing between the residential clusters. This reading is further supported by Maxar’s image analysis, which indicates that the majority of debris followed seasonal watercourses and gullies, bypassing the village itself.
In these two images (sourced from the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army’s website), the valley is clearly visible, while no discernible traces of destroyed homes can be seen.
