Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have attacked the famine-stricken Abu Shouk displacement camp near El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, killing at least 40 people and injuring 19 others, local rights groups said.
Home to about 450,000 people, the camp has faced repeated assaults since Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023. Witnesses said RSF fighters stormed sections of the camp on Monday, targeting residents inside their homes. The Resistance Committees in El-Fasher condemned the raid as “horrific violations against innocent, defenseless people.”
Satellite imagery from Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) showed around 40 RSF vehicles in the camp’s northwest sector, consistent with survivor accounts. HRL also verified photos and videos purportedly showing RSF forces shooting civilians attempting to flee while shouting ethnic slurs.
The RSF has reportedly blocked escape routes from El-Fasher, trapping civilians amid intensified fighting. Abu Shouk is one of two sites in Sudan facing severe famine, with the UN reporting that more than 60 people mostly women and children died of malnutrition in the city in just one week.
The Sudanese army claimed it repelled a major RSF offensive in El-Fasher, destroying 16 vehicles and capturing 34 others. The RSF countered that it had seized military equipment and gained new ground.
Meanwhile, the Sudan Doctors Network said RSF attacks have displaced over 3,000 families from 66 villages in North Kordofan since early August, looting homes and livestock. The UN confirmed that recent violence in the area killed 18 civilians and wounded many more, warning of a deepening humanitarian catastrophe.
