Sudan’s RSF claims control of famine-hit Zamzam camp in Darfur

Lead Paragraph: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has announced that it took control of famine-hit Zamzam camp in the western Darfur region, after two days of heavy shelling and gunfire there and in nearby areas that killed at least 100 people, including children and aid workers.

Key Developments

• The RSF launched ground and aerial assaults on North Darfur’s besieged capital of el-Fasher and the nearby Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps.
• More than 100 people were feared dead in the RSF attacks, according to the United Nations.
• The RSF claimed the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) were using the camp as a “military base” and civilians as “human shields.”

Humanitarian Crisis

The war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million, and created what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Zamzam and Abu Shouk are among five areas in Sudan where famine was detected by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitoring group. An estimated 25 million people – half of Sudan’s population – are now facing extreme hunger.

International Response

Rights groups have accused the RSF of using brutal sexual violence as a weapon against civilians. The conflict has essentially divided Sudan in two, with the army holding sway in the north and east, while the RSF controls most of Darfur and parts of the south.

Image: AFP via Al Jazeera

Source: Al Jazeera