Sudanese paramilitaries have reportedly massacred the entire staff of the last operational medical clinic in the Zamzam camp, situated in El Fasher, a city deeply affected by prolonged famine in the Darfur region. Aid organizations and the United Nations confirmed this devastating incident, revealing that the attack on Friday night was part of a larger offensive that left over 100 individuals dead.
The Zamzam camp, housing approximately 500,000 vulnerable individuals, has been under siege. Armed fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (R.S.F.) infiltrated the camp after relentless shelling, wreaking havoc by destroying hundreds of homes and annihilating the camp's primary marketplace. They turned their violence towards the clinic run by Relief International, which had been the sole medical facility serving the desperate population.
Nine members of the medical team, including the lead doctor, were killed in the raid. "We have learned the unthinkable,” stated a Relief International spokesperson, expressing the profound grief felt by the organization. According to Kashif Shafique, the aid group’s Sudan director, the paramilitaries had threatened the healthcare workers the day before the attack, urging them to abandon their posts. Despite these warnings, the medical team felt compelled to stay behind to care for the scores of civilians who were injured due to the ongoing hostilities, with exit routes from the camp being perilously blocked.
This tragic incident marks a dismal chapter in a civil war characterized by widespread atrocities and accusations of genocide, highlighting the grim reality faced by humanitarian workers and the civilians they strive to protect.
