By Bunmi Yekini
In a dramatic escalation of violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied armed groups have stormed and taken control of Zamzam, the country’s largest displacement camp, leaving a trail of devastation and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee into already besieged areas like El Fasher and Tawila.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which has been operating in Tawila, reported that over 25,000 people arrived there between April 12 and 15 — many of them severely injured or dehydrated. The humanitarian organisation is urgently calling for an end to the siege, safe passage for civilians, and emergency airdrops of food and medical supplies to El Fasher.
“We are treating children who were literally dying of thirst on their journeys,” said Marion Ramstein, MSF’s project coordinator in Tawila. “We have received so far over 170 people with gunshot and blast injuries and 40 per cent of them are women and girls. People tell us that many injured and vulnerable people could not make the trip to Tawila and were left behind. Almost everyone we talk to said they lost at least one family member during the attack.”
By April 16, Zamzam camp, which once housed over half a million people, was reportedly under RSF control. Much of the camp has been destroyed, and horrific eyewitness accounts suggest fighters went door-to-door, executing civilians and torching shelters.
Among the casualties were eleven staff from Relief International, the only remaining medical service in the camp after MSF suspended operations in February due to growing insecurity.
“We urge the Rapid Support Forces and all armed groups in the area to spare and protect civilians and ensure that those who want to flee can do so without further harm,” said Rasmane Kabore, MSF’s Head of Mission in Sudan. “A massive humanitarian response is needed, now more urgently than ever. If the roads to El Fasher are blocked, then air operations must be launched to bring food and medicines to the estimated one million people trapped there and being starved.”
El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, has become the last refuge for tens of thousands who fled Zamzam, but the city itself is under siege and cut off from lifesaving humanitarian assistance. MSF warns of dire conditions and escalating ethnic violence targeting non-Arab communities, particularly Zaghawa and Fur, by RSF forces made up largely of fighters from Arab tribes.
“Our teams are doing what they can, but we are overwhelmed,” said Ramstein. “The world must act, silence is complicity.”
MSF and other humanitarian actors are scaling up emergency interventions in Tawila, but face severe shortages of water, food, shelter, and medical supplies.