Amnesty calls for war crimes probe on RSF attack on Sudan refugee camp

Rights group Amnesty International has called for a war crimes investigation into an assault by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a displaced persons camp in Sudan’s North Darfur state earlier this year.

A report issued by the NGO on Wednesday documents accounts of atrocities committed by the RSF during a large-scale attack on the Zamzam camp. The RSF has been accused of indiscriminate killing and mass rape, among other crimes, numerous times amid its conflict with the military government of Sudan that has been running since April 2023.

The assault on the famine-hit camp came as the paramilitary force laid siege to el-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur. The RSF now holds full control over the state and is pushing eastwards into the vast central Sudanese region of West Kordofan, adding to the millions of people who have been displaced.

The attacks on Zamzam – the largest for internally displaced people in North Darfur state – between April 11 and 13 saw RSF fighters deploy explosives in populated areas and shoot randomly in residential areas, according to the report.

The document details dozens of accounts of deadly attacks on civilians, with witnesses recounting seeing RSF fighters fatally shoot at least 47 civilians who were hiding in their homes, fleeing the violence or sheltering in a mosque.

“The RSF’s horrific and deliberate assault on desperate, hungry civilians in Zamzam camp laid bare once again its alarming disregard for human life,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general.

“Civilians were ruthlessly attacked, killed, robbed of items critical to their survival and livelihood, and left without recourse to justice.”

The assault, which also saw RSF fighters deliberately set fire to homes and other buildings, and undertake acts “that may amount to” rape and pillage, caused an estimated 400,000 people to flee the camp during two days alone, the report said.

‘Shooting anywhere’

Based on interviews with 29 people – including witnesses, survivors, and the relatives of victims, as well as videos and satellite imagery – the report is the latest to accuse the RSF of committing atrocities in Sudan’s 30-month war, including mass killings, summary executions and rapes.

The military government’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has also been accused of numerous war crimes.

The kind of depictions given by survivors of the Zamzam assault, of RSF fighters shooting and setting fires indiscriminately to send residents fleeing, have become familiar.

“[RSF] fighters were just shouting and shooting anywhere, so that is how many people were killed,” one man told Amnesty.

Another said: “You could not identify where the shelling [was] coming from. It was everywhere.”

One woman, a volunteer for a nongovernmental organisation, described an RSF fighter firing randomly from his vehicle as he drove near the camp’s main market.

Amnesty said that shooting without a specific military target could constitute an indiscriminate attack, a serious violation of international humanitarian law.

Another man described how he had witnessed about 15 armed men storm his compound and fatally shoot his 80-year-old brother and 30-year-old nephew.

“No one is concerned with our situation,” he said.

No end in sight

Amnesty also once again criticised the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the report for supporting the RSF – a widely made accusation.

The UAE has staunchly denied that it supplies arms or financial support to the RSF.

The SAF and RSF have remained locked in a brutal conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 12 million since hostilities broke out in April 2023.

Efforts to broker a truce have made little headway. The RSF announced a unilateral ceasefire last month following a peace plan issued by the “Quad,” a group of mediators including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the United States.

However, continuing clashes suggest there is little willingness on either side to end the war.