More than 1,000 civilians killed when Sudan paramilitary group seized Zamzam camp, UN says
More than 1,000 civilians were killed during three days of attacks by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on the Zamzam displacement camp in April, the UN said Thursday, demanding a war crimes investigation.
A report from the UN human rights office said it had documented widespread killings, sexual violence, torture and abductions committed during the brutal offensive by the RSF, which has been fighting Sudan’s regular army since 2023.
The rights office “documented the killing of at least 1,013 civilians” in that attack between April 11 and 13, the report said, adding that it had also confirmed that “at least 319 individuals were summarily executed”.
“Some were killed in their homes during house-to-house searches by the RSF; others were killed in the main market, in schools, health facilities and mosques,” the office said in a statement.
More than 400,000 inhabitants of the camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) were displaced once again due to the attack, it added.
The assault was part of the paramilitary force’s push to seize the city of El-Fasher, the army’s last stronghold in the western Darfur region, which the RSF captured in late October amid reports of more mass killings, sexual violence, abductions and looting.
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“Such deliberate killing of civilians or persons (outside of) combat may constitute the war crime of murder,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in the statement.
“There must be an impartial, thorough and effective investigation into the attack on the Zamzam IDP camp, and those responsible for serious violations of international law must be punished within fair proceedings.”
The report, which comes two days after a Yale University study that found the RSF destroyed and concealed evidence of mass killings they committed after overrunning El-Fasher, also details patterns of sexual violence.
The office said it had documented at least 104 victims – 75 women, 26 girls and three boys – assaulted between April 11 and May 20, mostly from the Zaghawa ethnic group.
They were “subjected to gruesome sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, and sexual slavery, both during the attack on the camp and along the exit routes”, the office said.
“The findings contained in this report are yet another stark reminder of the need for prompt action to end the cycles of atrocities and violence,” Turk said.
“The world must not sit back and watch as such cruelty becomes entrenched as the order of the day in Sudan.”
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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