RSF renews attack on Zamzam camp, governor calls for arms, MSF urges to spare civilians

February 12, 2025 (EL FASHER) – The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) renewed its attack on the Zamzam camp for displaced persons in North Darfur state on Wednesday, as the governor of the Darfur region, Minni Arko Minawi, called on those able to bear arms to defend the displaced. The fighting has prompted a desperate plea from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for safe passage for civilians trapped in the crossfire.

The RSF launched a violent attack on the camp on Tuesday, committing widespread abuses against civilians, burning down the main market and looting vehicles and property of the displaced. The attacking force was repelled by the army, the Joint Force and the Popular Resistance.

Minawi, who oversees the joint force, said in a Facebook post: “We call on all those who can bear arms to move to save our displaced people from the brutality of the terrorist RSF militia and to protect the land and honour.”

Minawi’s call came as the RSF and Arab tribal militias launched a new attack on the Zamzam camp southwest of El Fasher for the second day in a row, leaving a large number of victims.

Eyewitnesses in El Fasher told Sudan Tribune that they continued to hear the sounds of powerful explosions and fires in large parts of the Zamzam camp while thousands of displaced people continued to flee towards the city on foot in a difficult journey of displacement, some of them with gunshot wounds.

The Coordination of Displaced Persons and Refugees in the Darfur region accused the RSF of committing a massacre in its attack, which it described as treacherous, on the Zamzam camp.

The spokesman for the Coordination, Adam Regal, said that the streets of the camp had turned into death yards after being filled with blood and body parts while women and children lived hours of terror, hunger and disappointment.

He considered the attack on the camp a war crime and a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms and stressed the need to stop the criminal attacks on the displaced immediately.

He called on the international community to take immediate action to protect the displaced and impose sanctions on the perpetrators and prevent the recurrence of these massacres that claim lives. He called on humanitarian and human rights organizations to shed light on these crimes and work to deliver humanitarian aid.

The displaced fear that the RSF, if it takes control of the Zamzam camp, will commit crimes of ethnic cleansing and genocide, as happened in the city of Geneina in West Darfur state, because the RSF claims that the residents of the camp belong to the joint force that is leading bloody confrontations inside El Fasher.

Last December, for several days in a row, the RSF launched a large number of long-range artillery shells at the Zamzam camp, killing dozens of displaced people and burning their homes. The forces justified their attack on the camp at the time by the withdrawal of the joint force into the camp and its use of the displaced as human shields, which the joint force denies.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) urgently calls on all warring parties in Sudan to spare civilians and protect medical staff and health facilities amidst escalating violence in Zamzam camp. “We are worried for the safety of civilians and our MSF colleagues in Zamzam,” the medical group stated on Wednesday.

The fighting between the RSF and the Joint Forces is directly impacting the camp, endangering hundreds of thousands of people already suffering from shelling and starvation.

MSF’s hospital in Zamzam has received a surge of patients, with 17 on Wednesday and 23 on Tuesday, and tragically, seven additional deaths upon arrival. “Our hospital cannot provide trauma surgery, and there are no routes to treatment available,” MSF reported. Critically, the hospital lacks trauma surgery capabilities, and access to the nearest trauma centre, the Saudi hospital in El Fasher, is blocked by intense clashes.

MSF emphasizes the urgent need to allow civilians to evacuate the camp safely and ensure the protection of medical personnel and facilities. They call on all warring parties “to spare civilians and allow them to escape the camp, and to protect medical staff and health facilities.”