Sudan’s warring sides trade accusations over military presence in Zamzam camp

February 13, 2025 (EL FASHER) – Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the joint force (JF) traded accusations on Thursday regarding military presence inside the Zamzam camp for displaced people in North Darfur state.

The RSF carried out a violent attack on the camp, located in the southwestern part of El Fasher city, over the past two days, committing widespread violations against civilians, including killing, looting, and forcing displaced people to flee.

The attack on the camp came days after intense RSF attacks on several villages in the western countryside of North Darfur’s capital, expelling residents after burning their homes and looting their property.

In a statement issued by its spokesman, Ahmed Hussein Mustafa, the joint force said that “the Janjaweed militia is trying to spread lies that the Zamzam camp is a military base to justify the attack and bombing.”

He explained that the RSF and its allies premeditated the attack on the camp by broadcasting videos indicating their attack on the camp to strike the military headquarters of the joint force.

“We have previously clarified that there is no military presence of the joint force in the Zamzam camp for displaced people and that what is being promoted by the militia’s media is intended to give legitimacy to the attack on displacement camps and shelters,” the spokesman added.

He criticized the international community’s silence regarding these crimes and the continued support provided by some regional countries to the RSF, considering it an evident complicity in the ongoing genocide in Sudan.

He called on the United Nations and the Security Council to take urgent action to hold the militia’s supporters accountable, foremost among them the United Arab Emirates.

For its part, the RSF spokesman accused the armed movements of carrying out hostile acts from inside the camp against the RSF forces, which prompted them to respond and carry out rapid operations, as he called it, “liberating the displaced from the grip of the army and the armed movements.”

He affirmed that their forces possess irrefutable evidence proving the involvement of the joint force and the army in turning the Zamzam camp into a full-fledged military base containing weapons and ammunition depots and rooms for managing military operations.

In December, the RSF carried out, for several consecutive days, artillery shelling targeting the Zamzam camp, which suffers from widespread famine, killing large numbers of displaced people and forcing thousands to flee.