US condemns Sudan’s RSF for attacks on civilians, calls for accountability
The Trump administration on Tuesday condemned attacks by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on civilians in North Darfur and called for parties in the country’s civil war to be held accountable for breaches of international humanitarian law.
“We are deeply alarmed by reports that the RSF has deliberately targeted civilians and humanitarian actors in Zamzam and Abu Shouk,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters, referring to two camps in the region where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced in recent days, according to the U.N.
“The belligerents must uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law and must be held accountable,” Bruce added.
The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023, sparked by a power struggle between the army and Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, shattering hopes for a transition to civilian rule.
The warring parties should put down their guns and negotiate a durable peace, said Bruce, who declined to say if the U.S. was conducting diplomacy toward a settlement.
Bruce also declined to say whether the Trump administration agreed with a finding by the State Department under former President Joe Biden that the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in the conflict.
Civilians displaced
Between 60,000 and 80,000 households – or up to 400,000 people – have been displaced from Sudan’s Zamzam camp in North Darfur after it was taken over by the Rapid Support Forces, according to data from the U.N.’s International Organisation for Migration.
The RSF seized control of the camp on Sunday after a four-day assault that the government and aid groups have said left hundreds dead or wounded.
The United Nations said on Monday that preliminary figures from local sources show more than 300 civilians were killed in fighting on Friday and Saturday around the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps and the town of al-Fashir in North Darfur.
This includes 10 humanitarian personnel from Relief International, who were killed while operating one of the last functioning health centres in Zamzam camp, said a U.N. spokesperson.
Rights groups have long warned of possible atrocities should the RSF succeed in its months-long siege of the famine-stricken camp, neighbour to the army’s only remaining stronghold in the Darfur region, al-Fashir.
Satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showed burning buildings and smoke in Zamzam on Friday, echoing prior RSF attacks.
The RSF has dismissed such allegations and says the Zamzam camp was being used as a base for army-aligned groups.
At the start of the war, the camp was home to about half a million people, a number that is thought to have doubled.
In a video shared by the paramilitary force, RSF second in command Abdelrahim Dagalo is seen speaking to a small group of displaced people, promising them food, water, medical care and a return to their homes.
The RSF accelerated its assault on the camp after the army regained control of the capital, Khartoum, cementing its retaking of the centre of the country.
It has also accelerated drone attacks into army-controlled territory, including an attack on the Atbara power station in the north of the country on Monday, according to the national electricity company, cutting off power to the wartime capital of Port Sudan.
