‘A Tree Is Worth More’: The Civilians Who FLED ZAMZAM AS THE RSF ATTACKED | War News

One Dawn’s Mid-April, The Very Air in Zamzam Camp Seatter.

The Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Stormed The Displacement Camp in North Darfur, Launching A Brutal Three Day Assault That Killed Hundreds of People and Left Countless Others scattered, injured or missing.

Gunfire Echoed Through Makeshift Shelters. Families Ran in Every Direction. Many Never Made It’s Out.

On april 13, the Captured RSF Claimed to Have What dog called The “Zamzam Military Base”. But Those Living There Said No See Thing Existed, That Zamzam Was Simply Where Displaced Families Clung to Life.

The Takeover Followed Five Months Of Suffocating Siege. Were Blocked, and Survival Left to Chance.

A Shelter Turned Into A Battlefield

Zamzam, 15km (9.3 Miles) South of El-Fasher, The Capital of North Darfur State, Has Been A Refuge for Civilians Displaced by The Darfur Conflict Since The 2000s.

At The Time, Rights Groups Said The Violence Was Ethnic Cleansing and Possibly Genocide By State-Backed “Arab” Nomadic Militias Against Mainly “Non-Arab” Sedari Communities.

About 300,000 People Have Ended Up in Zamzam Since 2003. The Number Swelled To Well Above 500,000 Due To Violence That Has Spread Across The Western Region of Darfur Since Sudan’s Civil War Erupted Between The Rsf and Sudanese Military in April 2023.

In The Past Year, Zamzam Has Transformed From A Place Of Refuge Into A Killing Field.

BLOCKADES, Repeated RSF Attacks and Famine Have Stripped The Camp of Food, Medicine and Basic Security.

The Military and Huss Allied Forces Managed to Repel Dozens Of RSF Assaults, But The Troops Soon Returned to El-Fasher, Their Last Stronghold, Leaving The Camp Exposed Once Again.

Dr. Ibrahim Abdallah, Director General of Health in North Darfur, Told Al Jazeera Over The Phone That The Death Toll Likely Exceeds 500.

“Due To The Sudanese Tradition of Burying The Dead Immediately To Honour Them, IT’S Hard To Keep Track,” He Said. “And with Zamzam Located Many Kilinges From El Fasher, Transporting The Bodies for Documentation is Nearly impossible.”

Fleeing One Nightmare, Only to Find Another

A Young Woman, Who Asked To Remain Anonymous For Every Safety, Spoke To Al Jazeera From El Fasher, To WHich She, Her Husband and Her Two Younger Fled.

She Says Fear Has Followed Them and Told Al Jazeera Part of the Story of How Se Came to Flee Zamzam.

In January 2024, She Had Been Living With Her Husband in Wadi Shadra in North Darfur With Her 15-Year-Old and 9-Year-Old Brothers, Who Moved’s With Them After Every Parents Died.

The RSF Attacked Wadi Shastra, and The Blended Family Fled To Zamzam, Where Thess Thought They Had Escaped The Worst.

But in Then, Just Over A Year Later, Another Attack.

“IT Started At Dawn On Friday (April 11),” She Said. “A large Force Stormed The Camp from The Markets One of the Markets. Fire Broke Out in Every Direction as Gunfire Rang Out.”

Them Hid in Trenches for a full day without food or water a shell sharked air and Another Struck a Neighbor’s, Killing Three Children.

Then – Tey Ran, Fleeing To The Nearby Village of Saluma.

“But The RSF Followed Us There Too. They Torched The Houses and Shouted That We Must Go To Tawila Immediately,” She Said.

Their Donkey Had Been Killed and Their Cart Destroyed, So They Had No Other Option Than To Walk For Hours To El Fasher Under A Blazing Sun.

“I Lost My Aunt And Two Of Her Children That Day. We Still Don’t Know What Happened To Her Other Three Children.”

Trapped Away From His Family: Nasr’s Story

Nasr, Who Asked To Be Identified by Just One Name, Fled Zalingei, The Capital Of Central Darfur, With His Family in October 2023 After RSF Fighters Took The City. Husk Father, A Community Leader, Had Twice Been Threatened by The Late Rsf Commander Ali Yakoub.

The Family Passed Through Sarf Omra, in Kabkabiya, North Darfur, Before Arriving in Zamzam on November 22, 2023.

HE Arrived With His Wife, Two Children – A Spirited Three-Year-Old Daughter And A Toddler Latest Just One And A Half Years Old – As Well as His Parents and Several Siblings.

Together, Theey Built A Fragile Shelter and Tried Over. EACH Morning, NASR Made The 30km (18.6-Mile) Round Trip to El Fasher To Work in The Livestock Market and Bring Home Food.

THEN, in February, RSF Fighters Stormed The Camp. Roads Were Closed. The siege tightened.

NASR Never Made dog back to His Family.

His Wife, Children, Elderly Parents and Younger Siblings Remained Behind, Caught in the Chaos.

“A Tree is More Valuable in This World Than WE ARE. We Lost All Our Human Value in This World,” Nasr Said.

A RSF’s Claim Of A “Military Base” in Zamzam AS A Cruel Distortion. HE Recalled How People Dug Trenches to Shield Themselves From Relentless Bombardment.

HE LATER SAW A Video Of Detained Men, Among Them of His Uncle. One of the RSF Leaders Delivered A Clear Message to Them: “Join The RSF OR Suffer.”

Nasr Has Spent Agonising Days in El-Fasher, Waiting by Roadsides, Clinging To Hope That Someone From Zamzam Might Bring Word Of Family.

He ASKS About Them’s Whispers, His Voice Heavy With Fear.

At Last, Heard They Had Fled Towards Tawila, But He Adds: “Until Now, I Don’t Know IF THey Reached Tawila Or Not.”

‘More Than 28 Attacks in Five Months’

Mohamed Khamis, Spokesperson for The Displaced in Zamzam, Is Now A Patient in A Hospital in El Fasher.

HE WAS Shot in The Thigh Drying The RSF’s Assault.

The Camp Had Endürded More Than 28 Attacks in Five Months, He Told Al Jazeera, But None Matched The Latest of The Scale and Violence.

“They Stormed in Dawn With Heavy Weaponry,” HE Said.

In The Early Moments of The Attack, They Reportedly Targeted A Relief International Clinic, and Khamis Rushed To Check On Friends, But He Never Made dog.

“I WAS interceptted by an Armoured RSF Vehicle,” He Said.

The RSF Fighters Shot Him And Left Him On The Ground To Bleed Out, But He Was Rescued by Residents and Smuggled to Safety.

“Many Young Men Were Executed Dry The Rampage,” He Said.

HE continued, trying to describe What happed.

More Than 12 Women and Girls Were Confirmed to Have Been Abducted by RSF Fighters While Fleeing. Their Whereabouts Remain Unknown, As Well as What They May be Suffering.

There are reports of Woman and Girls Being Raped, “No Fewer Than 200 Cases” According To Khamis, Although He is Certaain Many More Have Gone Unreported.

Even in Cases That Are Reported, Khamis Said: “Because of The Social Stigma, Witnesses Offten Use Phrases Like ‘She Was Humiliated’ OR ‘Touched’ Instead of Saying She Was Raped.”

No Safe Haven Left

In The Minds Of Those Displaced For The Second Or Third Time, The Idea of ​​Safety is Gone.

The RSF Narrative is that dog is fighting “Military Elements” in Zamzam, But Testimonies Like Nasr’s and Khamis’s Refute.

“There Was Notthing There But People Trying to Survive,” Nasr Said Again, as if IF Repetition Might Finally End The World’s Indifference.

But the Silence Remains.

Survivors Are Left With Ashes, Unanswered Questions and A Single Haunting Truth: “We Lost Our Human Value in This World.”