Deadly RSF attacks on Darfur famine-hit camps

An assault by Sudan’s paramilitary force on the Zamzam and Abu Shorouk Camps for displaced people in Darfur is feared to have left over 100 people, including 20 children, dead or wounded.

United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami said Saturday that the offensive by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan’s rebel paramilitary, took place over at least two days, destroying homes, markets and healthcare facilities.

Over 700,000 displaced people, many of whom are now trapped without safe refuge, live in the two camps.

What else do we know about the attack?

In a statement, Nkweta-Salami added that nine aid workers were killed “while operating one of the very few remaining health posts still operational” in Zamzam camp.

“This represents yet another deadly and unacceptable escalation in a series of brutal attacks on displaced people and aid workers in Sudan since the onset of this conflict nearly two years ago,” she added.

Relief International, the last organisation providing critical services at Zamzam Camp, reported the aid workers who died were their colleagues, including doctors and drivers, adding that its clinic was overtaken.

“This was a targeted attack on the most vulnerable, elderly people, women, and children,” it said in a statement.

The group said the central market in Zamzam along with hundreds of makeshift homes in the camp were destroyed.

According to the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees, a local group in Darfur, the attacks forced around 2,400 people to flee the camps and the nearby city of el-Fasher, the only city in Darfur not controlled by the RSF.

What did the RSF say?

The paramilitary group denied allegations of atrocities in the Zamzam Camp, dismissing them as fabricated. It claimed a recently circulated video purportedly showing civilian suffering in the camp was staged by the Sudanese army.

The RSF accused the army of orchestrating a media campaign using actors and staged scenes to falsely incriminate them, denying responsibility for any attacks on civilians.

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The paramilitary group has been locked in a vicious fight for power with the Sudanese military since April 2023, creating what is believed to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Both parties have been accused of committing war crimes and violating international humanitarian law, with tens of thousands dying in the war and more than 12 million displaced.

Around 25 million people, nearly half the country’s population, are believed to be facing extreme hunger.

Recent weeks have seen Sudan’s military make gains in the capital Khartoum, prompting the RSF to increase its offensive in regions in Darfur still not under its control. The fighting has been mostly concentrated in these two provinces.