Highlighting the report’s findings, UN human rights chief Volker Türk noted that more than 1,000 civilians had been killed in the Zamzam offensive alone, including 319 who faced summary executions in their homes, in the main market or in schools, health centers and mosques.
“Such deliberate killing of civilians or people or combat may constitute the war crime of murder… The world must not sit back and watch such cruelty take root,” Mr. Türk insisted.
A camp full of terrified people
At the time of the RSF paramilitary attack, the Zamzam camp was home to around 500,000 people uprooted by Sudan’s war, which began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF, following a breakdown in the transition to civilian government.
According to the OHCHR report, the FAR attack “supported by allied Arab militias” lasted from April 11 to 13; It involved “heavy artillery bombardment and ground incursions” that caused a large number of civilian deaths and displacement. “Relentless attacks” had been taking place since May 2024 on both El Fasher and surrounding camps, prompting High Commissioner Türk to issue an alert to residents of the Abu Shouk and Zamzam camps in September 2024.
“At least 104 people, including 75 women, 26 girls and three boys, most of them from the Zaghawa ethnic tribe, were subjected to horrific sexual violence, including rape, gang rape and sexual slavery,” Türk said Thursday in an online video message. “Sexual violence appears to have been used deliberately to inflict terror on the community,” he added.
Somber testimony
Testimonies highlighted in the report detailing the summary execution of displaced people describe how RSF fighters attacked civilians, including seven elderly people at a mosque and 16 other people at a religious school.
“A surviving community leader told how two RSF fighters inserted their rifles through small holes in the window of the room where he was hiding with 10 other men and opened fire, randomly killing eight of them,” the OHCHR said in a statement. “A woman who returned to the countryside the day after the deadly attack, looking for her missing 15-year-old son, said: ‘The countryside was empty. I saw dead bodies scattered on the roads. Only chickens, donkeys and sheep were wandering around.’ She did not find her son that day.”
The report’s conclusions are based on UN human rights monitoring, including a field mission to eastern Chad in July this year. Also interviewed were 155 victims and witnesses (including 114 women, three girls and six boys) who had fled the Zamzam camp during and after the RSF paramilitary offensive.
UN human rights chief Türk has called for an “impartial, thorough and effective investigation into the attack” on Zamzam camp; All those responsible for serious violations of international law must be punished through fair procedures, he said.