Report of the Zamzam massacre in Sudan During the 2003 Darfur War: The “Janjaweed” militia and its militia-involved forces

“It was a brutal and deliberate assault on health facilities and we don’t think it’s been done before,” said Mart Atterton, regional director for Africa at Relief International. Nine of our humanitarian colleagues, including a doctors, ambulance referral drivers and our area team leader, were executed while they were carrying out life-saving work in Sudan.

Both sides have been accused of atrocities, with the RSF — accused of genocide. The U.S. State Department said the RSF had murdered men and boys from many different ethnic groups, including infants, for rape and other forms of sexual violence.

Rights groups accused the two sides of war crimes, but the vast majority of atrocities were committed by the RSF. The U.S., UN and several rights groups have said that the RSF committed acts of genocide against ethnic Masalits during the war in the Sudan. The “Janjaweed” militia, which became famous due to its involvement in the last genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region, killed over one hundred thousand people in the region. RSF members have evolved from the group.

Satellite footage showed evidence of the RSF’s attack on the Zamzam. Images indicated that more than 200 armed pick-up trucks, known as “technicals” had swarmed the camp between April 11 and April 14, and the camp’s main market had been torched to the ground during that period.

Most of the residents of the town fled after the Janjaweed militia group took control of the area in the middle of the 2003 conflict.

The situation is extremely difficult, and hundreds of thousands of people have been pushed into the city’s streets, according to a resident from El Fasher. “Right now, even in my own house there are more than 100 women and children,” said the resident, adding that those still out on the streets are surviving “without water, without food, without health services — and unfortunately no one is asking about them, no one is taking care of them.”

The Sudanese army wrested back control of the capital of Sudan in less than two years. Once a charming and vibrant city at the confluence of the banks of the White and Blue Niles, it is now a shadow of its former self. Many landmarks have been destroyed, the national museum has been looted, and the health services have collapsed. Much of the city is rubble.

Sudan’s officials were not invited to the talks and are angry about the inclusion of countries that they consider to be responsible for fanning and fueling the conflict. There is mounting evidence, for instance, that the United Arab Emirates have been arming the Rapid Support Forces, which stand accused of perpetrating genocidal acts against African ethnic groups in Darfur. The RSF has been accused of carrying out other atrocities during the war, including the systematic use of sexual violence, the targeting of medical facilities, and persistent loot in communities that are under their control.

The U.K., France and Germany are cohosting Wednesday’s conference, but have not invited either of the warring factions themselves; the Sudanese Armed Forces — widely considered to be the de-facto government — and its erstwhile paramilitary partners, known as the Rapid Support Forces — or RSF.

Despite the unprecedented impact of the war there has been little concerted international action to address it. International donors have so far only committed a fraction of the money called for by the U.N. for Sudan.

A group of foreign minister from 20 countries are in London on Tuesday to discuss restarting peace talks over Sudan’s civil war that began two years ago. The conflict has led to the worst humanitarian crisis and famine in decades according to the United Nations.

There are facts that are documented. Hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan are suffering from famine according to the United Nations. The country faces the world’s largest displacement crisis — over 15 million people have been forced to flee their homes.

The worst of that genocidal violence is in the western Darfur region. Over the last few days the violence has spiraled. More than 300 people, have been killed in two major displacement camps near El-Fasher city in the western Darfur region, as the RSF launches a major assault on the last state capital in Darfur under the control of the Sudanese army.

The Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom said in his opening remarks that many have given up on Sudan. That is wrong…. We can’t look away. It appears that the world has.