The British Guardian newspaper revealed in an extensive investigative investigation of one of the most terrible massacres in Sudan, where more than 1500 civilians were believed to have been killed during an attack by Rapid Support Forces on the Zamzam camp for the displaced in North Darfur last April.
In the investigation, the displaced people in the camp told the newspaper’s correspondent, Mark Townsand, aspects of the atrocities committed by the rapid support forces fighters, and one of the survivors of the massacres said, “They slaughtered like animals.”
The investigation – which is based on survivors and field sources – documents group executions, rape and widespread kidnapping for 72 hours.
A local investigation committee suggested that the number of actual deaths may exceed two thousand, while thousands of people are still missing.
Zamzam camp – which has been hosting displaced people for more than two decades – is among the largest displacement camps in Sudan.
The attack came in a very sensitive timing, before an international peace conference organized by the British government in London on Sudan on April 16, with the aim of mobilizing support for humanitarian aid and developing a path to end hostilities.
According to the investigation, the Rapid Support Forces accused of genocide in Darfur in the first decade of the current millennium used the level of violence shocking even by the standards of the Sudanese conflict raging since April 2023.
Wholesale atrocities
One of the experts working on documenting the massacres confirmed that he never encountered this size of the loss of all those who spoke to them from the survivors.
This massacre – according to “Guardian” – is added to a series of atrocities that were committed in West Darfur State – especially in its capital, Al -Geneina – where more than 10,000 people from the Masalit tribe and other non -Arab population were killed during the year 2023, according to the United Nations estimates.
Despite the seriousness of the events, the President of the Darfur Association in Britain, Abdullah Abu Qirda, indicated the absence of any international reaction comparable to the crime, stressing that thousands of Darfurians in the Diaspora lost relatives or friends in the Zamzam massacre, explaining the British newspaper.
For its part, MSF warned of the catastrophic situation suffered by the survivors, as they are subjected to looting, sexual violations and harsh conditions of displacement.
The kidnapping of dozens of women was also reported to the city of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, one of the most prominent strongholds of the Rapid Support Forces.
In light of these developments, the International Criminal Court announced last month that it had “reasonable reasons” to believe in war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region.
The Guardian newspaper reported that strong evidence indicates that the attack was aimed at emptying the camp from its residents as part of a plan for enforced ethnic displacement.
Despite the subsequent limited condemnation of the United Nations and Britain, there were no serious steps to hold officials accountable or to impose sanctions on those behind the massacre.
According to “Guardian”, Zamzam camp is completely destroyed, and the neighboring city of El Fasher – which was the only hope to save – besieged and faces the danger of the massacres itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um_xaadbyhc
“They slaughtered us as animals”
The British newspaper says that, despite the record of the bloody rapid support forces, some believed that it might be back away from storming the Zamzam camp, which seemed a very fragile goal even for a militia accused of genocide.
The camp includes half a million people – most of whom are women and children – “they are hungry and completely isolated.”
“Inside Zamzam, there is one of the most fragile population on earth, if not the most at all.”
However, at eight o’clock in the morning that day last April – the Guardian continued – artillery shelling over Zamzam continued, and ranked planes began hovering in the atmosphere marking the start of the attack, and the rapid support forces began to surround the camp from 3 sides and then fired their shells, and their vehicles penetrated deep into the camp, kidnapped their fighters, teenage girls and killed the medical teams They raided schools and homes.
At the southern entrance to the camp, about 50 teenage girls were inspecting their phones, and eyewitnesses said they saw them forced to ride the “pickup” trucks of the Rapid Support, to be followed to an unknown destination, and they have not been found since then, according to the British newspaper.
Fatima Bakhit, the pregnant woman – who lost her husband and two children in the attack – described the moment when she carried the remains of her child’s body, and she said, “Parts of his body fell in my hands, I did not feel anything, not even hunger”, while her 3 -year -old child crawled towards her, stained with the blood of his dead brother
Survive novels
In the investigative investigation, the reporter, Mark Townsand, conveyed the testimonies of some of the survivors from the April massacre, only only the inclusion of their first names or borrowed names for their protection.
In the Ahmadi neighborhood – which is located 200 meters east of the camp – Rapid support fighters set fire to 60 homes belonging to the Zaghawa tribe, and they shot women while they were fleeing, and 6 of them remained inside the houses and burned neighborhoods.
Fatima Bakhit described the pregnant woman – who lost her husband and two children in the attack – the moment when she carried the remains of her child’s body, and she said, “Parts of his body fell in my hands, I did not feel anything, not even hunger”, while her 3 -year -old child crawled towards her, staining the blood of his dead brother, and Fatima was injured in her right leg and hand.
Next to the health clinic, the neighboring Sheikh Farah Quranic School was, and it was crowded with students and residents looking for shelter when it was stormed by the Rapid Support Forces.
There – the Guardian continues – Fatima watched at least 15 children and a man who was being lost abroad, and said, “Stop them in one row and shot all of them and wanted them to be killed.” One of the survivors – the newspaper called “Maryam” – said, “They pulled my sister from her home and killed her in front of us, slaughtered us as animals.”
At 11 am, 4 Toyota Hilux vehicles affiliated with the Rapid Support A clinic stormed their medical staff inside trenches dug underground, and one of the attackers shouted, “Get out, O slaves.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F8DH8AAA8
Group rape
Among the most prominent symbols of this massacre is a doctor named Hanadi Dawood (22 years old), she faced the attack in a heroic situation, so she refused to escape, and fought on the front lines with a kitchen knife, before a martyr fell under a bullet, the British newspaper confirms, indicating that her colleague Hisham Mohamed Roy told them, saying, “Death with honor, I will stay here until the end.”
The correspondent continues that Hanadi was not just a doctor, but was a symbol of a generation that grew up in the shadow of the previous genocide, and he chose to resist the weapon of mercy, not killing, and in one of the videos her friends show her to a primitive field clinic, while shell sounds were still being attempted.
“The Guardian” explains that the attack extended to the south of the camp, as the rapid support units raided the houses, executed the residents and set fire to the homes belonging to the Zaghawa tribe.
In another neighborhood, the Rapid Support Forces executed men and infants in straw huts, and another witness, Halima, stated that her 16 -year -old son was shot in front of her, before she and her teenage daughters were raped by 4 men.
“I used to hear the screams of my daughters, especially the young, only 13 years old,” Halima continues.
Although the British government received multiple warnings from the United Nations, a research center affiliated with the University of Yale, and from experts who attended official conferences in London stating that an imminent attack on Zamzam camp had occurred, the British Foreign Ministry remained silent, in the words of “Guardian”.
