Refugees International Alarmed by Attack on Largest Displacement Camp in Darfur 

Statement from Refugees International Director for Africa, Asia, and the Middle East Daniel P. Sullivan: 

“Refugees International is deeply alarmed by the attack on Zamzam, the largest displacement camp in Sudan’s Darfur region. The direct shelling of the camp’s main market by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) amid an ongoing famine is an egregious violation of international humanitarian law and will lead to further deaths. 

The United States and other influential countries must condemn these attacks and further press the backers of the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to stop fueling the fighting and use their leverage to prevent further atrocities.

The RSF directly shelled the Zamzam camp, which shelters more than half a million civilians, amid fighting with the Joint Forces, allied with the SAF. The attacks and fighting have already led to several deaths, further displacement, and blocked access to urgently needed lifesaving aid.

The attacks come at the same time as growing abuses by the SAF as it regains ground in and around Sudan’s capital of Khartoum.

Refugees International calls upon the RSF, SAF, and their allied militias to cease attacks on civilians and open pathways for safe evacuation and access to medical care and other humanitarian assistance. We further call upon external supporters of the RSF and SAF – particularly the United Arab Emirates, which has been supplying weapons to the RSF – to end their support for the warring parties and to use their leverage to halt further atrocities.

The attacks also come at a time when the United States government has frozen aid around the world. In Sudan, according to local Sudanese Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), this has led to the closure of more than 700 communal kitchens serving more than 800,000 people in and around Khartoum as well as all 40 kitchens that had been operating in the Zamzam camp.

At his Senate confirmation hearing, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio named the RSF attacks in Darfur as genocide – reaffirming a determination made at the end of the Biden administration – and stated the need to call out the UAE’s role in ‘openly supporting an entity that is carrying out genocide.’ The latest attacks on vulnerable civilians in Darfur must be met with clear condemnation from the United States and other countries and prioritized in bilateral engagements with the UAE and other enablers. The United States must also immediately restore full provision of aid to mitigate the growing crisis.”

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Etant Dupain at edupain@refugeesinternational.org.