*RSF takes control of Sudan’s largest displacement camp, burning it to the ground*
*More aid workers killed in El Fasher*
*Footage and images from the ground available here*
MON 14 APR – The UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is rounding up and executing children in Zamzam, Sudan’s largest displacement camp, with satellite images suggesting they intend to raze it to the ground. Fighters captured the camp on Sunday following three days of ground attacks and simultaneous artillery shelling of Abu Shouk camp. Avaaz is now receiving ground reports of intense artillery shelling on the west side of the nearby city of El Fasher.
The RSF’s attacks on medical facilities in North Darfur may demonstrate genocidal intent. Local aid workers told Avaaz the group was identifying and executing children in Zamzam. It also killed all staff at the only functioning hospital in Zamzam as well as Ahmed Mohamed Saleh Saydina, the manager of Hope Oasis, a safe space for children in the camp operated by the Sudanese American Physicians Association (SAPA).
“The RSF is continuing its genocide in Darfur. The RSF is systematically hunting local humanitarian responders and medics who provided a lifeline for the population of Zamzam. These massacres in the El Fasher area may demonstrate genocidal intent when paired with the emerging footage of RSF soldiers using racial slurs and slaying pregnant women in the streets. There are also reports of children and women being disappeared in the camp.” - Shayna Lewis, Sudan Specialist at PAEMA.
In the nearby Um Kadada district, the RSF executed 52 civilians on 10 April, the Emergency Lawyers group reports. Earlier in the week, it killed medical staff at the Um Kadada Hospital. Humanitarians and hospitals are protected from attack under international humanitarian law.
The Genocide Convention defines genocide as acts intended to “destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” or which inflict on the group conditions of life “calculated to bring about its physical destruction”. In January of this year, the United States Department of State determined that the RSF had committed genocide in Sudan, saying that, among other things, it had “systematically murdered men and boys—even infants—on an ethnic basis”.
Only three days ago, Human Rights Watch spoke of warning signs of an attack on Zamzam and likened "similar warning signs ahead of the RSF’s attacks on the suburb of Ardamata in El Geneina" in West Darfur in 2023. Those attacks, carried out by the RSF and allied militias, amounted to genocide, according to an independent expert inquiry conducted by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
Saudi Maternity Hospital, the only hospital still functioning in El Fasher, has critical shortages of medicines, surgical equipment, and major trauma kits and has been targeted multiple times in the two years of war. As of May last year, El Fasher and the surrounding area were home to around 1.5 million people, including approximately 800,000 people recently displaced by the war.
Local humanitarians reported to Avaaz that the displaced who arrived in El Fasher were sleeping on the streets, with no shelter, no food, and no water. Around 7,500 households have arrived to Tawila from El Fasher and Zamzam, according to local humanitarians (footage available here). The RSF is reportedly now preventing people from fleeing Zamzam camp.
On the other side of El Fasher in Abu Shouk IDP camp, women and children are seen fleeing with only slippers on their feet. The lucky ones are able to use donkey carts to transport their few possessions.
Human Rights Watch, Avaaz and Protection Approaches will be holding an in-person briefing for media ahead of the ministerial conference on Sudan being held in London on Tuesday. The event will begin at 8.30am at the office of the United Nations Association - UK at 3 Whitehall Court, London, SW1A 2EL. It will hear from, among others, Yasmine Ahmed, UK director at HRW, Eva Khair, director of the Sudan Transitional Consortium, and Mukhtar Elsheikh, a health worker at an Emergency Response Room in Khartoum North.
Voices from the Ground
Interviews available on request. Names have been changed due to safety concerns.
Altahir is from North Darfur but currently lives in Bristol in the UK. He told Avaaz that:
“The situation on the ground is catastrophic. The RSF has overrun Zamzam IDP camp, there is nothing left. They have burned the camp. They’ve been killing people and raping people. Anything that you can imagine has been taking place. I haven’t spoken to my mother and sister for over five day.
“This is a genocide, this is ethnic cleansing. Hundreds of people [have been] killed, many burned inside their homes. Injured people, women were unable to flee due to the RSF overriding the camp. Hundreds [of RSF came] on the back of pick-up trucks, [there is] no way to survive for the injured. The RSF will kill you if they find you.
“I managed to speak to some people in El Fasher today, but they only received the stories of people who arrived from Zamzam. But El Fasher is being bombarded as well…I don’t know where these people [the displaced] will go from here. El Fasher is a desert city, no water, no means of supporting life.”
INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES
The weekly dispatch features the latest developments, first-hand testimony, footage, photos, stats and analysis on Sudan. We can connect you with voices from the ground, experts and survivors of the war. Please contact +1 646 628 1210 / sudan@avaaz.org
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The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is building an earthen wall around El Fasher to create a “kill box” and prevent civilians fleeing the besieged city, satellite imagery suggests.
People caught trying to smuggle food into the besieged city of El Fasher are being “executed on sight” by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to one civilian.
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