SIHA Network expresses deep devastation and outrage over the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) brutal attack on the Zamzam IDP Camp in North Darfur today, which killed over 112 civilians in just a few hours, including children, the elderly, and women.
We are dismayed and shocked by the loss of community workers and volunteers from the women-led community kitchen we have been supporting and partnering with inside the Camp.
The RSF burned down the community kitchen facility in the course of its attack and killed the women volunteers inside. The RSF shot and killed Hasanat Musa, who was pregnant, and Nana Bahar Idris. We are currently working to verify and confirm the names of other women volunteers who were slain.
Additionally, we have received shocking reports that the RSF killed 20 children in Zamzam and Abu Shouk Camps cumulatively, adding to the brutality inflicted on the most vulnerable.
We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families and community of Zamzam for this tragic loss.
We also send our deepest condolences and stand in solidarity with our colleagues at Relief International for the loss of nine health workers who were killed by the RSF at Zamzam’s only operational medical facility.
As seen in this brutal attack on Zamzam Camp, the RSF continues to follow a clear and disturbing pattern that the SIHA Network has long observed across Darfur — the deliberate targeting of civilian-run service points as a strategy of forced eviction and control. The attack on the camp’s services – the only operational medical facility, the burning of the women-led community kitchen, and the killing of children are not isolated acts of violence. They are part of a systematic effort to dismantle the spaces that provide care, dignity, and survival for displaced communities — forcing civilians either to flee or perish and turning displacement camps into militarized zones of control and violence.
These horrific events serve as a reminder of the systemic genocidal acts that have been ongoing in Darfur for more than thirty years, motivated by impunity, neglect, ethnic supremacy, and hatred. This has been enabled by the silence of the international and regional community.
We continue to call for the protection of civilians in Darfur. We also call for the urgent presence of United Nations and African Union forces on the ground, to prevent further genocidal acts against the region ‘s population. This is to control the spread of militarism and violence against civilians throughout Sudan and neighbouring countries.
We underscore that justice and accountability are the cornerstones of sustainable peace and stability in Sudan and the Darfur region. A political process that promotes impunity would only result in more bloodshed and horrors throughout Sudan.
