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Sudan – A paramilitary force in Sudan has reportedly stormed the country’s largest displacement camp, looting and setting fire to the market and several homes, a local refugee group has said.
The Zamzam camp in North Darfur had been the target of intense artillery shelling since late last year, but this is the first time the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been accused of sending in fighters.
An eyewitness told the BBC the situation at the camp was “extremely catastrophic.”
There were many casualties, but the camp’s hospital no longer had a functioning surgery, he said.
The nearby city of el-Fasher, one of the centres of the civil war that erupted in 2023, is already under siege by the RSF as it battles the army.
The military and RSF had been allies – coming to power together in a coup – but fell out over an internationally backed plan to move towards civilian rule.
However, an RSF spokesman denied its fighters had penetrated it, saying they had seized a nearby military base belonging to an armed group that fights alongside the Sudanese military, after it had shelled RSF checkpoints for days.
Zamzam hosts about half a million displaced people who were already suffering from famine.
Reports said the attack forced thousands of them to flee again.
North Darfur’s Health Minister, Ibrahim Abdullah Khater, told the BBC that those injured in the attack were not able to reach el-Fasher for treatment because the RSF was blocking the road and preventing access to the city.
“The ones suffering the most are the displaced people,” he said.
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