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About 100 Bodies Recovered from Landslide-Hit Village in Sudan’s Darfur as Pope Urges Help

In this Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, photo provided by the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, people gather at the site of a landslide from Aug. 1, that wiped out the village of Tarasin in the Marrah Mountains of Central Darfur, Sudan. (Sudan Liberation Movement/Army via AP)
In this Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, photo provided by the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, people gather at the site of a landslide from Aug. 1, that wiped out the village of Tarasin in the Marrah Mountains of Central Darfur, Sudan. (Sudan Liberation Movement/Army via AP)
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About 100 Bodies Recovered from Landslide-Hit Village in Sudan’s Darfur as Pope Urges Help

In this Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, photo provided by the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, people gather at the site of a landslide from Aug. 1, that wiped out the village of Tarasin in the Marrah Mountains of Central Darfur, Sudan. (Sudan Liberation Movement/Army via AP)
In this Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, photo provided by the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, people gather at the site of a landslide from Aug. 1, that wiped out the village of Tarasin in the Marrah Mountains of Central Darfur, Sudan. (Sudan Liberation Movement/Army via AP)

Search teams recovered around 100 bodies from a remote village that is feared to have been wiped out by a devastating landslide over the weekend in Sudan's western region of Darfur, a rebel group said Wednesday.

Mohamed Abdel-Rahman al-Nair, a spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement-Army, told The Associated Press the recovery operation took place Tuesday and that search efforts were underway despite a lack of resources and equipment. He also said the death toll from the Aug. 31 landslide in Tarasin, in the Marrah Mountains, could be as high as 1,000.

The United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, said that the death toll and the full scale of the tragedy have yet to be confirmed as the area hit was “extremely hard to reach.”

The UN has said that “between 300-1,000 people may have lost their lives” in the landslide and that efforts were mobilized to support the impacted area, located more than 900 kilometers (560 miles) west of the capital, Khartoum.

Pope Leo XIV spoke of the tragedy during his weekly address on Wednesday, saying it has left “behind pain and despair.”

He called for “a coordinated response to stop this humanitarian catastrophe,” and initiate a “serious, sincere, and inclusive dialogue between the parties to end the conflict and restore hope, dignity, and peace to the people of Sudan.”

Arjimand Hussain, Regional Response Manager with Plan International, one of the few NGOs operating in Darfur, said the group, along with the UN, plans to send teams to Tarasin in the coming days, but deployment is difficult with the heavy rains making roads inaccessible.

“The whole humanitarian community is feeling helpless at the moment,” he said.

The Marrah Mountains region is a volcanic area with a height of more than 3,000 meters (9,840 feet) at its summit. The mountain chain is a world heritage site and is known for its lower temperature and higher rainfall than its surroundings, according to UNICEF.

A small-scale landslide hit the area in 2018, killing at least 19 people and injuring dozens of others, according to the now-disbanded United Nations-African Union mission in Darfur.

Sunday’s tragedy was the latest to slam Sudan amid its devastating civil war. The country has been hit by famine and disease outbreaks, including cholera, which killed hundreds of people this year.

The war began in April 2023 when boiling tensions between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open fighting in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.

The conflict killed tens of thousands of people and created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. More than 14 million people have been displaced and parts of the country have slipped into famine.

The war has been marked by atrocities, including mass killings and rape, which the International Criminal Court is investigating as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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Arab World

Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
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Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam visited heavily damaged towns near the Israeli border on Saturday, pledging reconstruction.

It was his first trip to the southern border area since the army said it finished disarming Hezbollah there, in January.

Swathes of south Lebanon's border areas remain in ruins and largely deserted more than a year after a US-brokered November 2024 ceasefire sought to end hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

Lebanon's government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army last month said it had completed the first phase of its plan to do so, covering the area between the Litani River and the Israeli border about 30 kilometers (20 miles) further south.

Visiting Tayr Harfa, around three kilometers from the border, and nearby Yarine, Salam said frontier towns and villages had suffered "a true catastrophe".

He vowed authorities would begin key projects including restoring roads, communications networks and water in the two towns.

Locals gathered on the rubble of buildings to greet Salam and the delegation of accompanying officials in nearby Dhayra, some waving Lebanese flags.

In a meeting in Bint Jbeil, further east, with officials including lawmakers from Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement, Salam said authorities would "rehabilitate 32 kilometers of roads, reconnect the severed communications network, repair water infrastructure" and power lines in the district.

Last year, the World Bank announced it had approved $250 million to support Lebanon's post-war reconstruction, after estimating that it would cost around $11 billion in total.

Salam said funds including from the World Bank would be used for the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects.

The second phase of the government's disarmament plan for Hezbollah concerns the area between the Litani and the Awali rivers, around 40 kilometers south of Beirut.

Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army's progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Despite the truce, Israel has kept up regular strikes on what it usually says are Hezbollah targets and maintains troops in five south Lebanon areas.

Lebanese officials have accused Israel of seeking to prevent reconstruction in the heavily damaged south with repeated strikes on bulldozers, excavators and prefabricated houses.

Visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Friday said the reform of Lebanon's banking system needed to precede international funding for reconstruction efforts.

The French diplomat met Lebanon's army chief Rodolphe Haykal on Saturday, the military said.

Arab World

Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
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Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)

Iraq has so far received 2,225 ISIS group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official told AFP on Saturday.

They are among up to 7,000 ISIS detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at "ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities".

Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.

The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF's role in confronting ISIS had come to an end.

Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister's office, told AFP on Saturday that "Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition", which Washington has led since 2014 to fight IS.

He said they are being held in "strict, regular detention centers".

A Kurdish military source confirmed to AFP the "continued transfer of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition".

On Saturday, an AFP photographer near the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria saw a US military convoy and 11 buses with tinted windows.

- Iraq calls for repatriation -

ISIS seized swathes of northern and western Iraq starting in 2014, until Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, managed to defeat it in 2017.

Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the extremists.

In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death and life sentences against those convicted of terrorism offences.

Thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of membership in the group are incarcerated in Iraqi prisons.

On Monday, the Iraqi judiciary announced it had begun investigative procedures involving 1,387 detainees it received as part of the US military's operation.

In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Saturday, Maan said "the established principle is to try all those involved in crimes against Iraqis and those belonging to the terrorist ISIS organization before the competent Iraqi courts".

Among the detainees being transferred to Iraq are Syrians, Iraqis, Europeans and holders of other nationalities, according to Iraqi security sources.

Iraq is calling on the concerned countries to repatriate their citizens and ensure their prosecution.

Maan noted that "the process of handing over the terrorists to their countries will begin once the legal requirements are completed".

Arab World

Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
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Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)

A drone attack by a notorious paramilitary group hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said.

The attack by the Rapid Support Forces occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war.

The vehicle transported displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area of North Kordofan, the doctors’ group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants, the group said.

The doctors’ group urged the international community and rights organizations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations.”

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war against the Sudanese military for control of the country for about three years.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

The devastating war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

It created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with over 14 million people forced to flee their homes. It fueled disease outbreaks and pushed parts of the country into famine.