Khartoum: Gathered under the scorching sun with dozens of women and children, Najlaa Ahmed recounted the harrowing moment when fighters from Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stormed the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur. As shells rained down and drones circled overhead, armed men looted homes and set them ablaze.
Najlaa became separated from her family during the chaos. “I don’t know what’s become of them, my mother, father, siblings, my grandmother, I came here with strangers,” she said. She is one of six survivors who spoke to the international news agency Reuters, describing the raid as a scene of executions and widespread arson.
Sitting in a crowd of mothers and children under the harsh sun, Najlaa Ahmed described the moment the Rapid Support Forces men poured into Darfur's Zamzam displacement camp, looting and burning homes as shells rained down https://t.co/HT3DNN3H9X pic.twitter.com/ONLu43kHNz
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 20, 2025
The RSF, locked in a two-year conflict with Sudan’s army, seized control of the massive camp last week in an assault the United Nations estimates left at least 300 people dead and forced around 400,000 to flee.
While the RSF has previously denied accusations of atrocities, claiming the camp was used as a base by army-aligned forces, it did not respond to recent requests for comment. Humanitarian organizations, however, have condemned the attack as a deliberate assault on civilians already grappling with famine.
Najlaa managed to flee for the third time in recent months, this time reaching relative safety in Tawila—a town 60 kilometers from Zamzam controlled by a neutral rebel group. During the journey, she said she witnessed seven people die from hunger and dehydration, while others succumbed to injuries sustained in the violence.
In stark contrast to survivor accounts, the RSF posted videos of its deputy leader Abdelrahim Dagalo pledging to provide displaced people with food and shelter, even in areas where famine had already been confirmed.
“Bodies Were Everywhere”
The General Coordination for Displaced People and Refugees, an advocacy group, reports that more than 280,000 people have sought refuge in Tawila, adding to the half a million displaced since the conflict erupted in April 2023.
One resident of al-Fashir—the North Darfur capital located just 15 kilometers from Zamzam—shared that he discovered the bodies of 24 people killed in an attack on a religious school. “They started entering people’s houses, looting… they killed some people … After this people fled, running in different directions. There were fires. They had soldiers burning buildings to create more terror.”
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Another witness, an elder from Zamzam, said RSF fighters shot 14 people at close range inside a mosque. “People who are scared always go to the mosque to seek refuge, but they went into every mosque and shot them,” he said.
Though Reuters could not independently verify these accounts, videos authenticated by the news agency showed armed RSF soldiers confronting civilians outside a mosque, interrogating them about an alleged military presence. Other footage confirmed by Reuters depicted an unarmed man being shot while others lay on the ground, and a separate video showed fighters celebrating around lifeless bodies. The RSF claims these videos are fabricated.
Escalating Control in Darfur
The fall of Zamzam marks a strategic gain for the RSF in its broader campaign to dominate Darfur. A victory in al-Fashir could further solidify RSF’s efforts to establish a parallel administration to the army-led government, which has recently regained control of the capital, Khartoum.
The conflict originally erupted over plans to merge the RSF with the Sudanese Armed Forces. The RSF traces its roots to the notorious Janjaweed militias of the early 2000s, whose brutal campaigns gave rise to displacement camps like Zamzam across the Darfur region.
A recent report from Yale School of Public Health indicates that over 1.7 square kilometers of the Zamzam camp, including its central market, have been destroyed by fire. Researchers noted that new fires had been reported daily since Friday, with checkpoints observed around the perimeter. Some witnesses reported that RSF fighters were preventing people from escaping the camp.
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In Tawila, medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) treated 154 wounded people, many with gunshot injuries, including a seven-month-old infant, according to emergency field coordinator Marion Ramstein. Already scarce resources are being stretched to the limit.
“The lucky ones are the ones who find a tree to sit under,” Ramstein said.
Ahmed Mohamed, another survivor who reached Tawila this week, said he was robbed of all his possessions by soldiers en route and now sleeps directly on the ground. “We are in need of everything a human being would need,” he said.
