Sudan paramilitary attack kills over 40 in Darfur camp
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El-Fasher and surrounding displacement camps have faced escalating RSF assaults in recent months, particularly after the group withdrew from Khartoum earlier this year.
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People prepare local crops of sugar cane and watermelons for sale at Abu Shouk refugee camp, where they live on the outskirts of El Fasher, North Darfur, on October 8, 2010. (AP)
Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a deadly attack on a famine-stricken refugee camp in Darfur on Monday, killing at least 40 civilians and injuring 19 others, according to local rescue groups.
The RSF raided the Abu Shouk camp, located north of El-Fasher, the last Darfur city still under Sudanese army control, firing indiscriminately into homes and in the streets, the local Emergency Response Room reported.
El-Fasher and surrounding displacement camps have faced escalating RSF assaults in recent months, particularly after the group withdrew from Khartoum earlier this year. A major April offensive on the nearby Zamzam camp forced tens of thousands of displaced people to flee once again, many seeking refuge in El-Fasher.
The RSF now controls most of Darfur and parts of southern Sudan, while the army remains entrenched in the country’s north, east, and central regions.
Now in its third year, the conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, and triggered what the United Nations calls the world’s worst displacement and hunger crisis.
Famine was declared last year in three camps around El-Fasher, including Abu Shouk, and the UN warned it could spread to the city itself by May. However, a lack of accessible data has prevented a formal famine declaration.
1.5K civilians feared killed in RSF Zamzam Camp massacre: The Guardian
More than 1,500 civilians may have been killed during a brutal attack on Sudan’s largest displacement camp in April, marking what could be the second-deadliest war crime committed during the country’s ongoing conflict.
An investigation by The Guardian published earlier this month revealed harrowing accounts of mass executions and large-scale abductions during a 72-hour assault by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the Zamzam camp in North Darfur. The camp had long served as a refuge for people displaced by Sudan’s protracted violence.
The attack, which took place between April 11 and 14, is believed to have claimed the lives of at least 1,500 civilians. Initial reports, including from the United Nations, had indicated “hundreds” of casualties. However, a local committee formed to investigate the assault has now confirmed a death toll exceeding 1,500, with hundreds more still unaccounted for.
Mohammed Sharif, a member of the committee and part of Zamzam’s former administrative leadership, stated that the final toll is expected to be significantly higher. “Their bodies are lying inside homes, in the fields, on roads,” Sharif told The Guardian.
