More than 1,000 civilians were killed when Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of a famine-stricken displacement camp in the Darfur region earlier this year, according to a report released Thursday by the UN Human Rights Office.
The report said the RSF overran the Zamzam displacement camp in western Darfur between April 11 and 13, following months of restrictions that blocked food and humanitarian supplies from entering the camp, which housed nearly 500,000 people displaced by the conflict.
According to UN findings, RSF fighters carried out direct attacks on civilians during the takeover. At least 319 people were summarily executed inside the camp or while attempting to flee, the report said, adding that survivors described widespread killings, sexual violence, torture and abductions.
“Such deliberate killing of civilians or persons hors de combat may constitute the war crime of murder,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said 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 neighboring Chad. One witness reported that RSF fighters killed eight civilians hiding inside a room by firing through a window, according to the report.
The RSF did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The group has previously denied targeting civilians and said it would hold its forces accountable for any violations.
The UN said the attack on Zamzam camp preceded a later assault on the city of al-Fashir in North Darfur in late October, during which the RSF has been accused of executing and abducting thousands of civilians. The fate of many residents remains unknown.
Sudan has been engulfed in conflict since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the Sudanese army and the RSF, triggering one of the world’s largest humanitarian and displacement crises.