Since April 12, 2025, the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network has closely followed the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) brutal attack on Zamzam Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp, North Darfur. SIHA has issued two statements on the situation, highlighting the alarming civilian casualties, murder of children, extensive abductions and sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls.
Following these attacks, the RSF has now taken full control of Zamzam Camp. Safety and humanitarian conditions have significantly deteriorated. Local sources outside the Camp confirm that freedom of movement is completely restricted, and people are no longer allowed to leave. Additionally, all forms of communication, including cellphones and access to the internet, have been taken away, leaving those who remain inside the Camp completely cut off from the outside world.
SIHA Network has received direct testimonies and eyewitness reports of sixty-four (64) cases of abductions and the enforced disappearance of women and girls from the Camp, which we are in the process of verifying. We received further testimony that on April 13, 2025, eleven (11) women were taken from Zamzam Camp to the Tabit area (South-West of El Fasher) by RSF soldiers. Their families were later contacted and asked to pay a ransom of SDG 15 million (approximately USD$ 8000) for their release. Our local sources also confirm that abducted women and girls are reportedly taken to different locations, including Arab Bashir, Al-Awna (South-West of Zamzam), and Um Jalbakh (North of Kutum).
Overall, we have now documented and verified fourteen (14) cases of rape out of the twenty-seven (27) cases received. These verified cases include the eight (8) cases reported in our previous statement, since the beginning of the attacks. Among the survivors we interviewed who managed to flee the Camp, we documented the case of a 22-year-old woman who was subjected to gang rape by RSF soldiers on April 23, 2025, inside Zamzam. In another case, a 19-year-old girl was subjected to rape the following day (April 24, 2025) by an RSF soldier in front of her family. A 27-year-old woman and a 14-year-old girl also experienced similar violations while trying to flee to safety around the same period. Further, in Hashaba village (approximately 55 km North-East of Kutum), a 12-year-old girl reported that she and another girl were stopped by two (2) RSF soldiers and raped after being accused of having family members serving in the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
On May 19, 2025, we also documented a case of rape on the road between Zamzam and El Fasher. The survivor, a 24-year-old woman, was with nine (9) other women. Three (3) of the women were killed, and the remaining seven (7) were taken to the Al-Adsiyah farms, just outside Zamzam, by about fifteen (15) RSF soldiers. According to direct testimony from the survivors, they were subjected to torture and rape after being interrogated about whether they were married and their ethnic identities. After being raped, three (3) of the women were then abducted by the RSF.
SIHA Network also continues to receive numerous reports of looting and the killing of civilians to date. On April 11, 2025, we also received a grievous eyewitness report of six (6) women who were fatally burned alive, inside their house by RSF soldiers, in Zamzam Camp. Moreover, one of the women volunteers from our community kitchen in Zamzam told us that on May 16, 2025, on her way to Tawila with other families who were fleeing from the attacks, they were ambushed by RSF soldiers who took everything from them, even the slippers they were wearing. According to an eyewitness report, among the group heading to Tawila, approximately thirty (30) women and girls were subjected to beatings, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, and degrading forced body searches in front of their families. Additionally, the men in the group were commanded to lay face down and were beaten. The RSF soldiers also threatened to rape them. One woman, Haboba Hasania, bravely attempted to protect her daughter from being taken and was, in turn, run over by a RSF vehicle – tragically killed on the spot. The same eyewitness confirmed that another woman, presumed to be in her early 30’s, was taken away and raped by a RSF soldier. She was returned to the larger group by the RSF soldier 15 minutes later, visibly traumatized from the sexual violence she endured.
We also received testimony from a service provider that around the same period, three (3) men were attacked and sexually assaulted, with the RSF soldiers amputating their genitalia. This occurred on the road leading out of Zamzam. While two (2) of the men died, one made it to the nearest hospital for medical assistance. The families of the men and the service provider in question are unable to provide any further information about this incident at this point. However, SIHA Network highlights this crime to stress the fact that men are also being subjected to sexual violence and many cases remain unreported due to stigma.
Meanwhile, SIHA Network continues to piece together the sequence of events that transpired within the Camp during the attacks. According to the testimonies we received, inhabitants were gathered and divided into groups based on age, gender, and ethnicity. Zaghawa identified individuals who were accused of having relatives in the Darfur Joint Forces allied with the SAF and were severely beaten. Others were subjected to ethnic-based insults and verbal abuse. The women and girls grouped together were further subdivided according to their physical strength. For the group of those strong enough, they were forced to walk on foot to Kabkabiya (a district of North Darfur), herding livestock. For those ailing, elderly, or injured, they were forced to remain in Zamzam and prepare food for RSF soldiers.
Once again, the alarming incidents above are only those that have been reported to us – the reality is that there are many more atrocious crimes committed that remain unreported. The RSF’s systematic campaign of violence and destruction, specifically levelled at women and girls, remains to this day. As SIHA Network, we urge the world not to forget about the people of Darfur who have continued to endure the most heinous crimes at the hands of the RSF.
As we reach the end of the Protection on Civilians Week (May 19-23, 2025), we implore:
- The United Nations, the African Union, and the broader international community should establish an urgent hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur with a clear mandate to protect civilians and enforce existing Security Council Resolutions.
- The international humanitarian actors to immediately coordinate safe humanitarian corridors for civilians trapped in Zamzam and other international actors to provide resources to enable safe evacuation, medical access, and humanitarian aid delivery.
- We call on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to accelerate investigations and justice procedures in Darfur. This is to curb violence, impunity and ensure overall accountability for the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal acts committed by all perpetrators.
