GENEVA, (Reuters) – Over 1,000 civilians were killed when a Sudanese paramilitary group took over a famine-stricken displacement camp in Sudan’s Darfur in April, including about a third who were summarily executed, according to a report by the U.N. Human Rights Office on Thursday.
For months before the April 11-13 assault, the Rapid Support Forces blocked entry of food and supplies to the Zamzam camp in Sudan’s western region of Darfur housing nearly half a million people displaced by civil war, according to the U.N. report.
During the takeover, the RSF directed attacks against civilians, the U.N. report said, and survivors reported widespread killings, rape, torture and abductions, with at least 319 people executed in the camp or as they tried to flee.
“Such deliberate killing of civilians or persons hors de combat may constitute the war crime of murder,” said the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk in a statement accompanying the 18-page report.
The findings are based on interviews conducted in July 2025 with 155 survivors and witnesses who fled to Chad.
One of them testified that eight people hiding in a room in the camp were killed by RSF fighters who inserted rifles through a window and shot at the group, the report said.
The RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The group has previously denied harming civilians and said that it will hold its forces to account for any violations.
The April attack was a precursor to the attack on al-Fashir city to the north in late October, where the RSF is accused of summarily executing and kidnapping thousands of people. Most of those thought to have lived in the city are unaccounted for.
On Tuesday, the U.N. human rights office separately said drones had killed over 100 civilians in Sudan’s Kordofan this month.
Reporting by Emma Farge and Nafisa Eltahir in Cairo; additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Madeline Chambers and Caitlin Webber
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