At least 319 people were ‘summarily killed’ by Sudan’s RSF in April, the UN group said.
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More than 1,000 people were killed when a group of Sudanese soldiers took over a famine-stricken camp in the Darfur region in April, including about one-third who were “suddenly killed,” according to a report by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) on Thursday.
Months before the April 11-13 attack, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) blocked the entry of food and supplies into the Zamzam camp in Sudan’s western Darfur region, home to nearly half a million people displaced by the civil war, according to a UN report.
When the RSF took over, the RSF directed attacks on civilians, the UN report said, and survivors reported widespread killings, rape, torture and kidnapping, with at least 319 people killed in the camp or while trying to escape.
“Such deliberate killings of civilians … may constitute a war crime of murder,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement accompanying the 18-page report.
The findings are based on interviews conducted in July 2025 with 155 survivors and witnesses who fled to Chad.
Front burner30:49In Chad, inside the Sudanese refugee camps
‘I’m not coming back’
The Zamzam camp located 15 kilometers south of al Fasher town was originally established for displaced people after a few months of the Darfur war that started in 2003. The violence in that city in 2023 caused great tension in the camp, especially for the displaced people of African nations.
The commissioner warned of dire conditions in the camp late last year, and RSF troops blocked the entry of food, medical supplies and fuel into the camp, causing severe shortages in January, the report found.
“My family and I had no choice but to eat peanut shells, like many other families in the camp, because all food such as sugar, salt and oil had run out,” said a 30-year-old woman to the interviewers.
The attack, which began on April 11, involved gunfire, airstrikes and ground attacks involving four-wheel drive vehicles, the report said.
One of them revealed that eight people who were hiding in a room in the camp were killed by the RSF who put guns through the window and fired at the group, the report said.
Much of the violence was racially motivated, and in addition to the killings, the OHCHR documented 66 incidents of conflict-related violence, involving at least 104 victims. All but three of the reported victims were women, including more than a dozen who were not adults.
“I will not return to Zamzam even if the war ends, I feel safe here [in Chad],” said a 27-year-old woman who reported being a victim of sexual violence.
The two-and-a-half-year war between the warring rivals in Sudan has taken another disastrous turn with the capture of El Fasher in the Darfur region by the Rapid Support Forces. Nationally, CBC’s Chris Brown reveals what happened and why the UN is calling it the world’s worst disaster.
RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier, the group denied harming civilians and said it would deal with its soldiers if there were any violations.
The April attack was a prelude to El Fasher’s attack in the north in late October, in which the RSF is accused of killing and abducting thousands of people. Most of those who are thought to have lived in the city are unknown.
Read the report:
