Amnesty accuses Sudanese paramilitary of war crimes in assault on refugee camp

CAIRO (AP) – An international rights group on Wednesday accused the paramilitary group fighting against Sudan’s military of committing war crimes during its attack earlier this year on the country’s largest displacement camp in the Darfur region.

The Rapid Support Forces, which is at war with the Sudanese military, rampaged through the Zamzam camp in April as part of its siege of the city of el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province. The RSF seized city, the military’s last stronghold in Darfur, in October.

Amnesty International said in a report that the RSF’s multi-day attack on Zamzam involved killings of civilians, hostage taking and the destruction of mosques, schools and health clinics, and that they must be investigated as war crimes.

“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 Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general.

Amnesty’s report was the latest by an international rights group to accuse RSF of atrocities in Sudan’s 30-month war. These have included mass killings and rapes in attacks on towns and cities, particularly in Darfur. The Sudan military also has been accused of atrocities in the war.

A power struggle between the military and the RSF erupted into war in April 2023. The conflict has killed 40,000 people – though some rights groups say the death toll is significantly higher – and has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with over 14 million displaced. Many areas have experienced famine, including at the Zamzam camp.

“This was not an isolated attack, but part of a sustained campaign against villages and camps for internally displaced persons,” Callamard said of the Zamzam assault.

The RSF didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But following the attack, the group claimed that the camp was used as a base by the military and its allied militias, and said that its fighters didn’t target civilians. Amnesty also said the RSF didn’t respond to its request for comment.

Residents and aid workers who survived the attacks told The Associated Press in May that RSF fighters gunned down men and women in the streets of the camp, beat and tortured others and raped and sexually assaulted women and girls. The paramilitaries burned down large swaths of houses, markets and other buildings. The April 11 attack virtually emptied the 20-year-old camp, which was once home to some 500,000 residents.

Amnesty said in its report that 47 people who were killed in the assault were hiding in homes, fleeing the violence, at a clinic and seeking refuge in a mosque.

Citing survivors, the rights group also reported that many people were killed in shelling of densely populated areas between April 11-12, including a shell that landed near a mosque during a wedding ceremony.

One survivor recalled that RSF fighters stormed a compound, shooting and killing his 80-year-old brother and 30-year-old nephew. “No-one is concerned with our situation,” he was quoted as saying.

Another woman, who volunteered for NGOs, said that RSF fighters drove through her neighborhood near the camp’s main market on April 12 and fired indiscriminately. “One (RSF fighter) will stand up through a small roof and just shoot around and shoot anyone in the street,” she was quoted as saying.

Amnesty criticized the United Arab Emirates, as it has done in the past, over what it says is the Gulf nation’s support for the RSF. Callamard, the group’s chief, called for ceasing all arms transfer to the UAE, given “the very high risk of diversion to the RSF.”

The UAE has long denied the accusation of suppling arms to the RSF.

The RSF grew out of the Janjaweed militias, who became notorious for atrocities in the early 2000s in a ruthless campaign against people identifying as East or Central African in Darfur. That campaign killed some 300,000 people and drove 2.7 million from their homes.

Sudan’s former President Omar al-Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and genocide in Darfur in 2009.

Zamzam camp was established in 2004 to house people driven from their homes by Janjaweed attacks. Located just south of el-Fasher, it swelled over the years to cover an area 8 kilometers (5 miles) long by about 3 kilometers (2 miles) wide.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called the crimes committed in el-Fasher “horrendous,” and called for accountability.

The U.S. government has accused the RSF of genocide in Darfur. and the International Criminal Court has said it is investigating suspected war crimes in the Sudan war, especially in Darfur.