Published by the United Nations Human Rights Office, OHCHRThe report describes how civilians – many from besieged El Fasher – endured torture and kidnapping during a three-day offensive by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against the nearby Zamzam camp for displaced people in April this year.
Highlighting the report’s findings, UN human rights chief Volker Türk noted that more than 1,000 civilians had been killed in the Zamzam offensive alone, including 319 who were at risk of summary execution in their homes, the main market or in schools, health facilities and mosques.
“Such deliberate killings of civilians or people or combat may constitute a war crime of murder… The world must not stand idly by and watch such cruelty take root,” Mr. Türk insisted.
A camp full of terrified people
At the time of the RSF paramilitary attack, the Zamzam camp housed around 500,000 people uprooted by Sudan’s war, which began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF, following a failed transition to civilian rule.
According to the OHCHR report, the RSF attack “supported by allied Arab militias” lasted from April 11 to 13; this involved “heavy artillery bombardments and ground incursions” which caused large numbers of civilian deaths and displacement. “Incessant attacks” against El Fasher and surrounding camps had taken place since May 2024, prompting High Commissioner Türk to issue an alert for residents of the Abou Shouk and Zamzam camps in September 2024.
“At least 104 people, including 75 women, 26 girls and three boys, mostly from the Zaghawa ethnic tribe, were subjected to horrific sexual violence, including rape, gang rape and sexual slavery,” Türk said in an online video message on Thursday. “Sexual violence appears to have been deliberately used to sow terror in the community,” he added.
A dark testimony
Testimonies presented in the report detailing the summary execution of displaced people describe how RSF fighters targeted civilians, including seven elderly men at a mosque and 16 others at a religious school.
“A surviving community leader recounted how two RSF fighters inserted their rifles into small holes in the window of the room where he was hiding with 10 other men and opened fire, randomly killing eight of them,” OHCHR said in a statement. “A woman who returned to the camp the day after the deadly attack, looking for her missing 15-year-old son, said: ‘The camp was empty. I saw dead bodies scattered on the roads. Only chickens, donkeys and sheep wandered around.’ She did not find her son that day.
The report’s findings are based on UN human rights monitoring, including a field mission to eastern Chad in July this year. Interviews were also conducted with 155 victims and witnesses – including 114 women, three girls and six boys – who had fled the Zamzam camp during and after the RSF paramilitary offensive.
UN rights chief Türk called for an “impartial, thorough and effective investigation into the attack” on the Zamzam camp; all those responsible for serious violations of international law must be punished through fair procedures, he stressed.
Publicado anteriormente en Almouwatin.
