Sudan: Assault on Sudan’s Zamzam refugee camp may have killed more than 1,500 civilians
More than 1,500 civilians may have been massacred during an attack on Sudan’s largest displacement camp in April, in what would be the second-biggest war crime of the country’s catastrophic conflict. A Guardian investigation into the 72-hour attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on North Darfur’s Zamzam camp, the country’s largest for people displaced by the war, found repeated testimony of mass executions and large-scale abductions. Hundreds of civilians remain unaccounted for. The magnitude of likely casualties means the assault by the RSF ranks only behind a similar ethnic slaughter in West Darfur two years ago. The war between the Arab-led RSF and Sudanese military, which broke out in April 2023, has been characterised by repeated atrocities, forcing millions from their homes and causing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Until now, reports about the attack on Zamzam between 11 and 14 April had indicated that up to 400 non-Arab civilians were killed during the three-day assault. The UN has said “hundreds” died. However, a committee set up to investigate the death toll has so far “counted” more than 1,500 killed in the attack, which occurred on the eve of a British government-led conference in London intended to bring peace to Sudan. Mohammed Sharif, part of the committee from Zamzam’s former administration, said the final total would be significantly higher, with many bodies still not recovered from the camp, which is now controlled by the RSF. “Their bodies are lying inside homes, in the fields, on roads,” Sharif told the Guardian. Follow link for full story...