• Shelling and intense gunfire targeted the Zamzam displacement camp near El-Fasher on Friday

PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Friday killed 25 civilians including women and children, in an attack on a famine-stricken camp in Sudan’s North Darfur state, activists said.

The attack, which involved shelling and intense gunfire, “targeted Zamzam displacement camp from both the southern and eastern directions,” said the local resistance committee, a volunteer aid group in North Darfur’s besieged capital of El-Fasher.

Zamzam and other densely populated camps for the displaced around El-Fasher have suffered heavily during nearly two years of fighting between Sudan’s army and the RSF.

The paramilitaries have stepped up its efforts to complete their conquest of Darfur, Sudan’s vast western region, since losing control of the capital Khartoum last month.

Eyewitnesses described seeing RSF combat vehicles infiltrating the camp under cover of heavy gunfire.

The local resistance committee said the attack was met with counter-fire but the full extent of damage was unclear due to disrupted communications and Internet shutdowns.

Zamzam was the first part of Sudan where a UN-backed assessment declared famine last year.

The conflict in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million since a struggle for power between rival generals erupted into full-blown war on April 15, 2023.

AFP