GENEVA: Over 1,000 civilians were killed when a Sudanese paramilitary group took over a famine-stricken displacement camp in Sudan’s Darfur in April, including about a third who were summarily executed, according to a report by the UN Human Rights Office on Thursday.
For months before the April 11-13 assault, the Rapid Support Forces blocked entry of food and supplies to the Zamzam camp in Sudan’s western region of Darfur housing nearly half a million people displaced by civil war, according to the UN report.
During the takeover, the RSF directed attacks against civilians, the UN report said, and survivors reported widespread killings, rape, torture and abductions, with at least 319 people executed in the camp or as they tried to flee.
“Such deliberate killing of civilians or persons hors de combat may constitute the war crime of murder,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk 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 Chad.
One of them testified that eight people hiding in a room in the camp were killed by RSF fighters who inserted rifles through a window and shot at the group, the report said.
The RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The group has previously denied harming civilians and said that it will hold its forces to account for any violations.
The April attack was a precursor to the attack on Al-Fashir city to the north in late October, where the RSF is accused of summarily executing and kidnapping thousands of people. Most of those thought to have lived in the city are unaccounted for.
Over 1,000 civilians killed in Sudan’s Darfur when paramilitary group seized camp, UN says
https://arab.news/y85pv
Over 1,000 civilians killed in Sudan’s Darfur when paramilitary group seized camp, UN says
- RSF blocked entry of food and supplies to the Zamzam camp housing nearly half a million people, according to the UN report
- “Such deliberate killing of civilians or persons hors de combat may constitute the war crime of murder,” said Turk
Fledgling radio station aims to be ‘voice of the people’ in Gaza
- The electricity crisis is one of the most serious and difficult problems in the Gaza Strip, says Shereen Khalifa Broadcaster
DEIR EL-BALAH: From a small studio in the central city of Deir El-Balah, Sylvia Hassan’s voice echoes across the Gaza Strip, broadcast on one of the Palestinian territory’s first radio stations to hit the airwaves after two years of war.
Hassan, a radio host on fledgling station “Here Gaza,” delivers her broadcast from a well-lit room, as members of the technical team check levels and mix backing tracks on a sound deck. “This radio station was a dream we worked to achieve for many long months and sometimes without sleep,” Hassan said.
“It was a challenge for us, and a story of resilience.”
Hassan said the station would focus on social issues and the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which remains grave in the territory despite a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas since October.
“The radio station’s goal is to be the voice of the people in the Gaza Strip and to express their problems and suffering, especially after the war,” said Shereen Khalifa, part of the broadcasting team.
“There are many issues that people need to voice.” Most of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people were displaced at least once during the gruelling war.
Many still live in tents with little or no sanitation.
The war also decimated Gaza’s telecommunications and electricity infrastructure, compounding the challenges in reviving the territory’s local media landscape. “The electricity problem is one of the most serious and difficult problems in the Gaza Strip,” said Khalifa.
“We have solar power, but sometimes it doesn’t work well, so we have to rely on an external generator,” she added.
The station’s launch is funded by the EU and overseen by Filastiniyat, an organization that supports Palestinian women journalists, and the media center at the An-Najah National University in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.
The station plans to broadcast for two hours per day from Gaza and for longer from Nablus. It is available on FM and online.
Khalifa said that stable internet access had been one of the biggest obstacles in setting up the station, but that it was now broadcasting uninterrupted audio.
The Gaza Strip, a tiny territory surrounded by Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea, has been under Israeli blockade even before the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the war. Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to strictly control the entry of all goods and people to the territory.
“Under the siege, it is natural that modern equipment necessary for radio broadcasting cannot enter, so we have made the most of what is available,” she said.
