Attacks on famine-hit camps in Sudan’s Darfur leave at least 100 people dead, U.N. says

CAIRO — Sudan’s notorious paramilitary group launched a two-day attack on famine-hit camps for displaced people that left more than 100 dead, including 20 children and nine aid workers, in the Darfur region, a U.N. official said Saturday.

The Rapid Support Forces and allied militias launched an offensive on the Zamzam and Abu Shouk camps and the nearby city of El Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province, on Friday, said Clementine Nkweta-Salami, United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan.

El Fasher is under the control of the military, which has fought the RSF since Sudan descended into civil war two years ago, causing the deaths of more than 24,000 people, according to the U.N., though activists say the number is probably far higher.

The camps were attacked again on Saturday, Nkweta-Salami said in a statement. She said that nine aid workers were killed “while operating one of the very few remaining health posts still operational” in Zamzam camp.

“This represents yet another deadly and unacceptable escalation in a series of brutal attacks on displaced people and aid workers in Sudan since the onset of this conflict nearly two years ago,” she said.

Nkweta-Salami didn’t identify the aid workers, but Sudan’s Doctors Union said in a statement that six medical workers with Relief International were killed when their hospital in Zamzam came under attack Friday. They include Dr. Mahmoud Babaker Idris, a physician at the hospital, and Adam Babaker Abdallah, head of the group in the region, the union said. It blamed the RSF for “this criminal and barbaric act.”

In a statement Saturday evening, Relief International mourned the death of its nine workers, saying they were killed the previous day in a “targeted attack on all health infrastructure in the region,” including the group’s clinic.

The group said the central market in Zamzam along with hundreds of makeshift homes in the camp were destroyed in the attack.

The offensive forced about 2,400 people to flee the camps and El Fasher, according to the Darfur-based General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees.

Zamzam and Abu Shouk shelter more than 700,000 people who have been forced to flee their homes across Darfur during past bouts of fighting in the region, Nkweta-Salami said.

Late last month, the Sudanese military regained control over Khartoum, the capital, a major symbolic victory in the war. But the RSF still controls most of Darfur and other areas.

The two camps are among five areas in Sudan where famine was detected by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global hunger monitoring group. The war has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with about 25 million people — half of Sudan’s population — facing extreme hunger.

Magdy writes for the Associated Press.