Sudan: Thousands flee, more remain trapped in RSF attack on Darfur camp

Thousands of displaced Sudanese are continuing to arrive in Tawila after fleeing last weeks paramilitary offensive on Zamzam camp that the UN say killed hundreds, including children and aid workers.

According to Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières/MSF), thousands left the camp following an attack by the Rapid Support Forces and moved to communities already besieged and without lifesaving aid.

Many have made the journey to Tawila camp where the aid agency is operating.

"We are making an urgent appeal to put an end to the siege and the atrocities, to allow those who wish to flee to do so safely, and to deliver humanitarian aid, including by airdropping food and medicines to El Fasher if necessary,” the group said in a statement on Friday.

MSF suspended its activities in Zamzam in February due to the escalating violence and blockade, it said.

The NGO said that about 1,600 patients have required emergency services in Tawila, mainly because of severe dehydration.

The U.N. migration agency said the RSF attacks in Zamzam camp have displaced between 60-thousand to 80-thousand families in the first two days following the assault.

The majority of the families remain within El Fasher, the neighbouring capital city of North Darfur, which is under military control but has been besieged by the RSF for over a year.

Sudan plunged into conflict on April 15, 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including the vast western Darfur region.

Since then, at least 24 thousand people have been tallied as being killed, according to the United Nations, though activists say the number is far higher.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, known as the RSF, carried out the recent attacks after the Sudanese military late last month regained control over Khartoum, a major symbolic victory in the war.