What will happen to the survivors of camp massacres in Sudan’s North Darfur?

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This handout image courtesy of Maxar Technologies taken on April 16, 2025 shows fire and smoke at Zamzam camp near the besieged Darfur city of El-Fasher. (Maxar Technologies via AFP)
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Updated 02 May 2025
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What will happen to the survivors of camp massacres in Sudan’s North Darfur?

  • Armed groups attacked Zamzam and Abu Shouk camps on April 11, killing at least 100 people in one day
  • More than 120,000 survivors fled to Tawila, where water, food, and medical supplies are critically scarce

LONDON: Under the searing desert sun, where the wind kicks up sand and the silence is broken by the murmurs of hunger, tens of thousands of people have gathered in makeshift camps with nothing but bundles of belongings, tired donkeys and empty water containers.

These are the lucky ones, the survivors of an assault on the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps in Sudan’s North Darfur on April 11 by armed groups reportedly affiliated with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

At least 100 people were reported killed during that single day of violence at the camps and the nearby city of Al-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. Among the dead were at least 20 children and nine humanitarian aid workers.

Thousands more fled, carrying what little they could manage: bundles of clothing, jerry cans, and the names of family members they could not find amid the mayhem.

The RSF said the camps in question were being used as bases by what it called “mercenary factions.” It also denied targeting civilians and accused its rivals of orchestrating a media campaign, using actors and staged scenes within the camp to falsely incriminate it.




This handout image courtesy of Maxar Technologies taken on April 16, 2025 shows weapon-mounted technical vehicles on the eastern border of Zamzam camp near the besieged Darfur city of El-Fasher. (Maxar Technologies via AFP) 

One of the few doctors still working in Al-Fasher, Dr. Yasser Mohammed, witnessed the horrors from inside.

“The attack began from three directions,” he told Arab News. “The casualties were mostly civilians. I saw children, elders, students of Quranic schools, and even our medical staff shot. The numbers are too many. I can’t count.”

Many of the survivors have gathered in Tawila, a locality 70 kilometers away that was already struggling with limited resources. More than 120,000 people have arrived there in a matter of days. Local leaders say the area is suffering from acute shortages of drinking water and medicine. Several displaced people have died of heatstroke or thirst.

IN NUMBERS

• 13.6 million People forcibly displaced by the Sudan war, which began on April 15, 2023.

• 700,000 Displaced people living in Zamzam and Abu Shouk camps in North Darfur.

A video shared by local humanitarian volunteers showed a woman fainting after going three days without food or water. Many people arrived already malnourished, having lived in famine-like conditions for nearly eight months, with a siege crippling food supplies and basic services.

The crisis is only the latest chapter in a war that has torn Sudan apart since April 2023, when a power struggle between rival military commanders plunged the country into a brutal internal conflict.

Fighting has devastated major cities and destroyed vital infrastructure, displacing more than 13.6 million people — the largest displacement crisis on the planet.




This picture shows the burnt and heavily damaged facilities of the Jaili Oil Refinery, Sudan's largest, north of the capital Khartoum on March 18, 2025. (AFP)

The recent recapture by the Sudanese Armed Forces of the capital, Khartoum, from the RSF has intensified violence in other regions, especially Darfur, where civilians have long been targeted.

Al-Fasher is a city in a state of crisis. “Water is nearly gone. Fuel is nearly gone. And the desert heat is relentless,” Ramadan Djabir Nahar Awadallah, an aid worker based in Dabbah, told Arab News.

“Nearly half a million people are now living in one neighborhood, Hayy Al-Jami’a, near the airport.”

Al-Fasher, like much of North Darfur, has been functionally cut off for months. Aid workers say what little water makes it through on trucks is shared among hundreds of families.




This picture taken on September 1, 2023 shows a view of destruction in a livestock market area in al-Fasher, the capital of Sudan's North Darfur state. (AFP/File)

“We try to provide water,” said Awadallah. “But it is limited and may run out soon. Al-Fasher has become a city of shadows; people move but they are not really living; they are surviving.”

The burden is visible in photos taken on the ground: families squatting in open fields under the sun; boys herding donkeys between heaps of kindling; girls clutching empty pots. No proper tents, no sanitation, no roads. Just earth, exhaustion and silence.

“This is yet another disaster for families in Sudan who have faced two years of conflict that have caused the world’s largest displacement crisis,” said Francesco Lanino, deputy country director for Save the Children Sudan.

“There is dire need for urgent food distributions, including ready-to-eat meals and nutritional support to curb malnutrition. Provision of shelter and other non-food items is paramount for the new arrivals who are sheltering in schools in open spaces.

“Additionally, there is an urgent need to support or establish mobile health clinics and ensure the availability of essential medicines, first aid supplies, and basic maternal and child health services.




People who fled the Zamzam camp for the internally displaced after it fell under RSF control, queue for food rations in a makeshift encampment in an open field near the town of Tawila in war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region on April 13, 2025. (AFP)

“With such rapid displacement comes the real risk of waterborne diseases and therefore the need to install additional water sources or rehabilitate existing ones, and construct emergency latrines so as to keep waterborne diseases at bay,” Lanino continued.

“Hygiene kits containing soap, sanitary materials and other essentials are needed to reduce the risk of disease outbreaks.

“We also need to be able to provide mental health and psychosocial support, particularly for children and caregivers, who have witnessed traumatic events such as killing and maiming of their family members.”

As these events unfolded, global officials gathered in London to discuss the crisis in Sudan. Yet, in the eyes of many Sudanese and humanitarian observers, something was missing.

“There was not a single reference to the camps under siege or the civilians fleeing,” Shayna Lewis, a Sudan specialist with the US-based non-profit organization PAEMA, told Arab News.




Shayna Lewis. (Supplied) 

“It is absolutely beyond belief that the conference statement didn’t once mention what’s happening in Darfur right now.”

The omission of civilian protection from the final statement drew widespread concern.

“That silence isn’t just an oversight,” said Lewis. “It’s a devastating betrayal by those who could help but choose not to.”

Avaaz, a global advocacy organization, shared a stark summary: “There is a massive gap between the urgency on the ground and the pace of international action. While statements were read and funding was pledged, people were fleeing on foot, without food, without water, without help.”

Inside the camps, trauma is etched into every face.

“The psychological state of survivors is very bad,” said Dr. Mohammed. “Children and women are living without shelter. Some are still in shock. There are many injuries and we have almost no supplies left to treat them.”




Displaced Sudanese women and children gather at a camp near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 11, 2025, amid the ongoing war between the army and paramilitary forces. (AFP)

Medical needs go unmet, food is scarce and temperatures are rising, with no reprieve in sight.

Relief organizations have warned that North Darfur is already at risk of famine. In a recent update, the UN’s World Food Programme estimated that more than 18 million people across Sudan face acute food insecurity, one of the world’s worst hunger crises.

As the rainy season approaches, access to many of the worst-affected areas might be further limited. Roads will wash away, disease will spread and the people who survived the shelling might face a slower, quieter death, from thirst, hunger or despair.

In the midst of such devastation, voices from Darfur are still calling out, pleading for assistance.




Displaced Sudanese children gather at a camp near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 11, 2025, amid the ongoing war between the army and paramilitary forces. (AFP)

“Help us,” said Dr. Mohammed. “Send water, food, medicine. Listen to us.”

Eva Khair, director of the Sudan Transnational Consortium, echoed the urgency of this plea.

“The message we are hearing from inside Sudan is clear,” she said. “People want to survive. They want dignity. But they cannot do this alone.”

Kate Ferguson, of the organization Protection Approaches, described this moment as one of grave responsibility for the international community.




People who fled the Zamzam camp for the internally displaced after it fell under RSF control, rest in a makeshift encampment in an open field near the town of Tawila in war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region on April 13, 2025. (AFP)

“The risk now is that this failure becomes precedent, that inaction becomes the norm,” she said. “But it doesn’t have to. There is still time to act. There is still a chance to protect life.”

As night falls over Tawila, the sands grow cool and the stars shine down on families who have not eaten in days. Some of them will sleep. Some will keep walking. Some will stay where they are, hoping for a relief truck, a food parcel, a medic — anything.

They have escaped one form of violence. Now they face another: indifference.
 

 


Darfur civilians ‘face mass atrocities and ethnic violence’

Updated 04 July 2025
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Darfur civilians ‘face mass atrocities and ethnic violence’

  • Medical charity warns of new threat from escalation in fighting in Sudan civil war

KHARTOUM: Civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan face mass atrocities and ethnic violence in the civil war between the regular army and its paramilitary rivals, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres warned on Thursday.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have sought to consolidate their power in Darfur since losing control of the capital Khartoum in March. Their predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago.

The paramilitaries have intensified attacks on El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state which they have besieged since May 2024 in an effort to push the army out of its final stronghold in the region.
“People are not only caught in indiscriminate heavy fighting ... but also actively targeted by the Rapid Support Forces and their allies, notably on the basis of their ethnicity,” said Michel-Olivier Lacharite, Medecins Sans Frontieres’ head of emergencies. There were “threats of a full-blown assault,” on El-Fasher, which is home to hundreds of thousands of people largely cut off from food and water supplies and deprived of access to medical care, he said.


Egypt on alert as giant dam in Ethiopia completed

Updated 04 July 2025
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Egypt on alert as giant dam in Ethiopia completed

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia moved on Thursday to reassure Egypt about its water supply after completing work on a controversial giant $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile.

“To our neighbors downstream, our message is clear: the dam is not a threat, but a shared opportunity,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said.

“The energy and development it will generate stand to uplift not just Ethiopia. We believe in shared progress, shared energy, and shared water. Prosperity for one should mean prosperity for all.”

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is 1.8 km wide and 145 meters high, and is Africa's largest hydroelectric project. It can hold 74 billion cubic meters of water and generate more than 5,000 megawatts of power — more than double Ethiopia’s current output. It will begin full operations in September.

Egypt already suffers from severe water scarcity and sees the dam as an existential threat because the country relies on the Nile for 97 percent of its water. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Sudan’s leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan met last week and “stressed their rejection of any unilateral measures in the Blue Nile basin.” They were committed to safeguarding water security in the region, Sisi’s spokesman said.


Explosive drone intercepted near Irbil airport in northern Iraq, security statement says

Updated 03 July 2025
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Explosive drone intercepted near Irbil airport in northern Iraq, security statement says

  • The “Flight operations at the airport continued normally,” the Irbil airport authority said

IRBIL, Iraq: An explosive drone was shot down near Irbil airport in northern Iraq on Thursday, the Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service said in a statement.

There were no casualties reported, according to two security sources.

The “Flight operations at the airport continued normally and the airport was not affected by any damage,” the Irbil airport authority said in a statement.

The incident only caused a temporary delay in the landing of one aircraft, the statement added.


Jordanian and Vatican officials discuss promotion of Petra as destination for Christian pilgrims

Updated 03 July 2025
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Jordanian and Vatican officials discuss promotion of Petra as destination for Christian pilgrims

  • They say there is a strategic opportunity to integrate the UNESCO World Heritage Site into routes for Christian travelers
  • Head of tourism authority says highlighting Petra’s significance to Christian heritage itineraries could enhance Jordan’s position on global religious tourism map

LONDON: Officials from Jordan and the Vatican met on Thursday to discuss ways in which they can cooperate to advance religious tourism, including the promotion of the ancient city of Petra as a destination for Christian pilgrims.

Fares Braizat, who chairs the board of commissioners of the Petra Development and Tourism Regional Authority, said that highlighting the significance of the UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of Christian heritage itineraries could enhance Jordan’s position on the global religious tourism map.

The country has a number of important Christian sites, the most significant of which is the location on the eastern bank of the Jordan River where Jesus is said to have been baptized by John the Baptist. Several popes have visited it, including Francis and John Paul II.

Archbishop Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso, the Vatican’s ambassador to Jordan, confirmed the interest in collaborating with Jordanian authorities, and praised the nation’s stability and its rich historical and religious heritage.

Both officials acknowledged the strategic opportunity that exists to integrate Petra into pilgrimage routes for Christian travelers, the Jordan News Agency reported.

The Petra tourism authority recently lit up the Colosseum in Rome with the signature colors of the historic Jordanian site to celebrate a twinning agreement as part of a marketing strategy to attract European visitors, and to raise Petra’s profile globally as a premier cultural and spiritual tourism destination.

The Vatican itself is also a major tourism destination, for Christian pilgrims in particular. In 2025 it is expected to welcome between 30 and 35 million visitors during its latest Jubilee Year, a significant ecclesiastical event that takes place every 25 years.


Last lifelines in Gaza are being cut, UN chief warns

Updated 03 July 2025
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Last lifelines in Gaza are being cut, UN chief warns

  • Secretary-General Antonio Guterres again raises alarm over increasingly dire humanitarian crisis as restrictions on aid mount and civilians run out of safe places to shelter
  • He expresses grave concern over series of attacks in recent days that hit locations in which Palestinians were seeking shelter or trying to obtain food

NEW YORK CITY: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday said he was “appalled” by the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, condemned recent deadly strikes against displaced people, and warned that the enclave is on the brink of total collapse as fuel supplies run out.

He expressed grave concern over a series of attacks in recent days that hit locations in which Palestinians sought shelter or were trying to access food.

Guterres’ spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, read a statement that said: “Multiple attacks (have) killed and injured scores of Palestinians. The secretary-general strongly condemns the loss of civilian life.”

Civilians in Gaza are running out of safe areas in which to shelter as Israeli evacuation orders continue to expand, Dujarric added as he warned of a dire humanitarian crisis amid mounting restrictions on the delivery of aid and rising casualties among relief workers.

Israeli authorities issued a new displacement order on Thursday targeting parts of Gaza City, citing as a reason rocket fire from Palestinian groups. It affected an estimated 40,000 people, including those living in a displacement site, a medical facility, and a neighborhood previously spared evacuation orders since a temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas ended in March.

“As of earlier today, about 900 families are estimated to have fled,” Dujarric said, adding that approximately 78 percent of the Gaza Strip has now been affected by the cumulative effects of more than 50 such orders. When combined with the effects on areas designated as Israeli militarized zones, the figure rises to 85 percent, leaving just 15 percent of the territory available for civilians to live.

“Those areas are, of course, overcrowded,” Dujarric said. “They also severely lack basic services or proper infrastructure.”

He described the remaining habitable zones as fragmented and unsafe, and compared the humanitarian conditions there to having more than 2 million crammed into Manhattan but

“instead of buildings, the area is strewn with the rubble of demolished and burnt-out structures without any infrastructure or basic support.”

The UN Population Fund has reported that an estimated 700,000 women and girls in Gaza are experiencing “a nightmare” situation as a result of lack of access to menstrual hygiene products, water and privacy. It said it has nearly 170 truckloads of supplies ready for delivery but they remain blocked from entering Gaza.

Meanwhile, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that nine more aid workers from five organizations have died in Gaza since last Thursday, bringing the death toll among aid personnel to 107 in 2025, and 479 since the war began in October 2023; 326 members of UN staff are among the dead.

OCHA also highlighted the significant obstacles humanitarian operations faced in June. Out of nearly 400 attempts to coordinate with Israeli authorities, 44 percent were denied, and 10 percent were initially approved but later obstructed. Only a third of the missions were fully facilitated, while 12 percent were canceled due to logistical or security issues.

Four out of 16 humanitarian coordination efforts were denied on Thursday alone, Dujarric said, hindering efforts to relocate medical supplies and clear debris.

“The space left for civilians to stay is shrinking by the day,” he added.

In his statement, Guterres underscored the fact that international humanitarian law is “unambiguous” in its requirement for civilians to be protected and their basic needs met.

He warned that the continuing blockade on fuel deliveries, now entering an 18th week, threatens to bring remaining humanitarian operations to a halt.

“Without an urgent influx of fuel, incubators will shut down, ambulances will be unable to reach the injured and sick, and water cannot be purified,” he said, adding that the UN and its partners might soon be unable to deliver even the limited amount of aid that remains in Gaza.

Guterres repeated his call for “full, safe and sustained humanitarian access,” and said the UN has a ready, proven plan to deliver aid “safely and at scale” to civilians across the territory.

He also renewed his appeal for an “immediate, permanent ceasefire” and the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” and stressed that all parties involved in the conflict must uphold their obligations under international law.