RSF attacks Sudan’s famine-stricken Zamzam refugee camp

The paramilitary group is trying to tighten its grip on Darfur, a traditional stronghold.

The RSF has been besieging the area for months, claiming that the camp is a base for the Joint Forces, former rebel groups now fighting alongside the army [File: Hussein Malla/AP Photo]

The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has stepped up its attacks on the  Zamzam refugee camp near el-Fasher, capital of the North Darfur state.

On Friday, residents and medics said the RSF attacked the camp, which it surrounded three times within a week.

At least seven people were killed in the camp this week, Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said, adding that medics were unable to perform surgeries in Zamzam.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the United Nations secretary-general, said the renewed fighting included the use of heavy weapons and urged the warring parties to stop the violence.

The RSF is said to be trying to tighten its grip on its Darfur stronghold, losing ground to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the capital, Khartoum.

The entrance to Zamzam camp and market before and after the attacks [Maxar]

Nearly 22 months since the war erupted in Sudan between the RSF and the SAF, the paramilitary group still controls most of Darfur in Sudan’s west and much of the neighbouring Kordofan region.

The army controls Sudan’s north and east and has recently made crucial gains in Khartoum.

Zamzam houses 500,000 people displaced by fighting in this and past wars in Darfur, while nearby el-Fasher is home to 1.8 million people and is the last significant holdout against the RSF across Darfur.

The RSF has been besieging the area for months, claiming that the camp is a base for the Joint Forces, former rebel groups now fighting alongside the army.

Some camp residents have burrowed holes into the ground for shelter and protection, fearing constant attacks, according to one resident and a video shared by activists.

“Inside the neighbourhoods, they terrorise, steal, and kill … people hide in these holes when they are firing and when they are raiding, because there is nowhere else to flee,” a resident of the camp told the Reuters news agency.

The top UN humanitarian official in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, said on Thursday she was “shocked by the attacks on Zamzam IDP camp and the blockages of escape routes”.

Aid Restrictions

The RSF has also restricted aid efforts to the camp, according to the UN and aid workers.

In August, a UN-backed report found that it is plausible that parts of North Darfur – especially the Zamzam camp – are experiencing “the worst form of hunger”, known as IPC Phase 5.

IPC Phase 5 is a step in an internationally recognised Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) which indicates that at least one in five people or households severely lack food and face starvation and destitution, which would ultimately lead to critical levels of acute malnutrition and death.

After the latest violence, MSF said it had to stop a nutrition programme for 6,000 malnourished children.

Earlier this month, the group had announced that the proportion of the camp’s children who were malnourished had risen to 34 percent, a similar level to the nearby town of Tawila, to which many have fled from RSF attacks.

Speaking on Friday at a high-level humanitarian conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the situation in Sudan as a catastrophe on a “staggering scale and brutality”.

“We must do more – and do more now – to help the people of Sudan out of this nightmare,” he said, calling on world leaders to use their influence for peace and boost humanitarian aid efforts before the holy month of Ramadan, which begins in about 10 days.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES