Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces slaughtered at least 1,013 civilians during a savage three-day assault on the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur last April, a damning UN report exposes.
The paramilitary group stormed the camp from April 11 to 13, 2025, executing 319 people in cold blood during house-to-house searches, in bustling markets, schools, health facilities, and even mosques.
Fighters deliberately targeted members of the Zaghawa ethnic group, unleashing a wave of terror that included widespread rape and torture.
In one horrific pattern, RSF soldiers subjected at least 104 survivors—mostly women and girls—to gang rape, sexual slavery, and other forms of sexual violence as a tactic to instill fear and shatter communities.
Moreover, the assault capped months of a ruthless siege that RSF imposed on the camp and nearby el-Fasher, blocking essential supplies like food, water, and fuel.
Families desperately fed their children animal feed such as peanut shells, while famine gripped the area—conditions the UN confirmed as early as July 2024.
RSF gunmen executed 26 individuals who dared to smuggle in aid, exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe.
As the attack unfolded, heavy artillery shelling and ground incursions forced over 400,000 residents to flee, many enduring further ambushes along escape routes.
Zamzam, once home to more than 500,000 displaced people since its establishment in 2004, transformed into a ghost town littered with the elderly, disabled, and chronically ill who could not escape.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk condemned the atrocities in stark terms.
“Such deliberate killing of civilians or persons hors de combat may constitute the war crime of murder,” he declared, urging an “impartial, thorough and effective investigation” to hold perpetrators accountable.
Türk added, “These horrific patterns of violations – committed with impunity – are consistent with what my Office has repeatedly documented, including during the RSF takeover of El Fasher in late October.”
In addition, Türk implored the international community to act swiftly.
“The world must not sit back and watch as such cruelty becomes entrenched as the order of the day in Sudan,” he warned.
“All States, particularly those with influence on the situation, must do all in their power to prevent atrocities.”
He called for halting arms supplies to the warring parties and pushing for a cessation of hostilities to break the cycle of violence.
This massacre forms part of Sudan’s devastating civil war, which erupted in April 2023 between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces.
The conflict has displaced over 14 million people, killed tens of thousands, and plunged the nation into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with famine ravaging multiple regions.
RSF forces, backed by allied Arab militias, have repeatedly targeted ethnic African groups like the Zaghawa, Fur, and Berti, echoing the genocidal horrors of Darfur’s early 2000s conflict.
Meanwhile, reactions poured in on social media and from global outlets.
The UN Human Rights office shared chilling details on X, emphasizing that “those responsible must be punished.”
Africanews reported the findings, highlighting the RSF’s failure to respond to the allegations.
As the report’s revelations spread, aid organizations and diplomats renewed pleas for urgent intervention.
However, with Western aid cuts and global attention diverted, Sudan’s displaced millions continue to suffer in silence, their pleas for justice echoing amid the ruins of places like Zamzam.