In the shadow of Sudan’s ongoing civil war, new reports have cast a harsh spotlight on a wave of atrocities that unfolded in North Darfur earlier this year. Over three harrowing days in April 2025, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)—a powerful Sudanese paramilitary group—stormed the Zamzam displacement camp near El Fasher, leaving a trail of devastation that international observers now say may amount to war crimes. The United Nations Human Rights Office, along with independent researchers and humanitarian groups, has documented mass killings, sexual violence, and systematic efforts to cover up the scale of the horror.
The Zamzam camp, once a teeming refuge for more than 500,000 people uprooted by Sudan’s civil conflict, became the epicenter of a brutal offensive between April 11 and 13. According to an 18-page UN Human Rights Office report released Thursday, more than 1,000 civilians were killed during the RSF’s assault, with at least 319 victims summarily executed in their homes, at the market, in schools, health facilities, and mosques. The report describes these killings as both deliberate and systematic—"Such deliberate killing of civilians or persons hors de combat may constitute the war crime of murder," declared UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, as quoted by France 24 and Arab News.
For months before the assault, the RSF had blocked food and supplies from reaching Zamzam, compounding a famine that already threatened the camp’s residents. Survivors and witnesses, interviewed by UN investigators in neighboring Chad in July 2025, recounted a campaign of terror: house-to-house raids, abductions, torture, and a pattern of sexual violence that left deep scars on the community. The UN documented at least 104 victims of sexual violence between April and May—75 women, 26 girls, and three boys, most from the Zaghawa ethnic group. "Sexual violence appears to have been deliberately used to inflict terror on the community," Türk stated in a video message cited by the UN and Newsday.
One particularly chilling account came from a surviving community leader who described how RSF fighters inserted rifles through the window of a room where he and ten others were hiding, then opened fire, killing eight. Another woman who returned to Zamzam the day after the attack searching for her missing 15-year-old son found the camp eerily deserted. "The camp was empty. I saw scattered dead bodies on the roads. Only chicken, donkeys and sheep were wandering around," she told UN monitors, according to the official OHCHR statement.
The RSF’s offensive did not end at Zamzam. The April attack was a prelude to a larger campaign to seize El Fasher, the last stronghold of the Sudanese army in North Darfur. By late October 2025, the RSF had violently taken control of the city, with reports of further mass killings, summary executions, sexual violence, abductions, and looting. Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), as reported by Arab News and Shia Waves, used satellite imagery to identify 150 clusters consistent with human remains in El Fasher—dozens of which appeared to correspond with execution-style killings and attacks on civilians attempting to flee. Within a month, nearly 60 of these clusters disappeared, and earth disturbances were recorded near the sites, suggesting efforts to conceal evidence. The HRL concluded that tens of thousands may have died in systematic mass killings and body disposal—findings that have prompted international condemnation and calls for urgent humanitarian access.
The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has denied targeting civilians and claims it will hold any violators accountable. However, the UN, humanitarian groups, and independent researchers have found a "consistent pattern of serious violations of international humanitarian law and gross abuses of international human rights law," as the UN report described. Amnesty International and the Sudan Doctors' Network have echoed these findings, with the latter recently blaming RSF and allied groups for fresh artillery attacks in South Kordofan, killing at least 16 more civilians and raising fears of famine and further displacement.
The humanitarian toll of Sudan’s war, which began in April 2023 after a breakdown in the transition to civilian rule, is staggering. The United Nations estimates that at least 150,000 people have been killed—though some rights groups say the true figure is much higher—and more than 14 million have been displaced, making it the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis. The conflict pits the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, against the RSF, his former deputy’s force. Despite repeated attempts at mediation by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, efforts to negotiate a ceasefire have repeatedly failed, leaving millions of civilians at extreme risk.
International diplomats continue to press for a resolution. On December 18, 2025, General Burhan met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo, after talks with Saudi officials in Riyadh. U.S. envoy Massad Boulos also held discussions with Saudi leaders, with all parties expressing support for a humanitarian truce and expanded aid access. Yet, political divisions remain stark. Egypt reiterated its opposition to any "parallel entities"—a reference to the RSF’s July 2025 announcement of a rival government—and warned of "red lines" regarding Sudan’s unity and territorial integrity. Meanwhile, the fighting has shifted south, with the oil-rich Kordofan states now facing artillery bombardments and the threat of famine.
The UN and aid agencies have repeatedly called for unfettered access to El Fasher and Zamzam, where communications are cut and tens of thousands remain trapped, many reportedly detained by RSF forces. The UN rights chief Volker Türk has demanded an "impartial, thorough and effective investigation into the attack on the Zamzam IDP camp, and those responsible for serious violations of international law must be punished within fair proceedings." He added, "The world must not sit back and watch as such cruelty becomes entrenched as the order of the day in Sudan."
As the world’s attention drifts elsewhere, the survivors of Zamzam and El Fasher continue to bear witness to unspeakable suffering. Their stories, meticulously documented in UN reports and satellite imagery, serve as a grim reminder of the stakes in Sudan’s war—and the urgent need for justice and humanitarian relief in a land where violence has become all too common.
