The Assault on Zamzam: Massacre in a Displacement Camp

On 11-13 April 2025 the RSF launched a multi-day assault on Zamzam displacement camp, killing at least 210 civilians by UN count (with other estimates as high as 1,500), including entire families shot in makeshift bunkers. Survivors described deliberate executions of the elderly, disabled, and children, plus hostage-taking and ransom demands.

The RSF assault on Zamzam IDP camp began Friday, 11 April 2025, and lasted at least three days, opening with persistent shelling and gunfire that disturbed residents' morning activities. Survivors described fleeing burning neighborhoods and hiding in makeshift shelters, including holes dug into the ground, with young children and infants, for hours without food or water while explosions and gunfire continued.

The UN Human Rights Office recorded at least 210 civilians killed in Zamzam between 11 and 13 April, though other estimates range as high as 1,500 deaths; there is no verified death toll. Six survivors described seeing many dead bodies in civilian clothes, including children and older persons, along the streets, as well as dead livestock; three interviewees told Amnesty International they saw burnt bodies, including of neighbours.

"We found the holes and we found they killed the whole family: five kids, the man and the wife. They just shot them in that hole."
— Abbas*, 29, university student and survivor

"Abbas", a 29-year-old university student, described finding a family of seven killed in a makeshift bunker. "Salwa", 38, found four family members dead on a donkey cart, including her blind father-in-law and daughter shot in the forehead and a brother-in-law shot under the chin; only her six-year-old son, shot in the back, survived. "Younis" said he lost around 20 relatives, all civilians, during the assault.

Amnesty International documented a pattern of RSF fighters deliberately shooting and killing civilians who posed no threat: combined eyewitness accounts describe 47 civilians shot dead while hiding in homes, fleeing, at a humanitarian clinic, and seeking refuge in a mosque and school. Five survivors said they personally witnessed RSF fighters shoot at fleeing civilians, including a physically disabled person, a mentally disabled person, three older persons, and one already-injured person.

"Hassan", a child under 18, was abducted after RSF killed his two uncles and seven other men at Sheikh Farah mosque and school; he was chained at night and forced to herd sheep for RSF-linked men for roughly two months, beaten when he tried to escape, and released only after a five-million-Sudanese-pound ($1,500) ransom was demanded and paid. "Sadya", 31, a camp volunteer, was detained for three days, threatened and beaten, with a 10-million-pound ($3,000) ransom demanded; she was released after her family paid about three million pounds ($900).

Amnesty International and this dossier's underlying research note that deliberate killing of civilians not participating in hostilities is a war crime of murder under international humanitarian law. The abduction and forced exploitation of "Hassan" and "Sadya" meet the definitional elements of human trafficking under the Palermo Protocol, with MSF separately documenting RSF use of abductees to herd livestock in North Darfur.

Sources

  • Amnesty International -- Primary source: detailed witness testimony on the Zamzam massacre, hostage-taking, and trafficking analysis