Rights group Amnesty International said Wednesday that a large-scale attack by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on a refugee camp earlier this year "must be investigated for war crimes".
The RSF, fighting Sudan's army since April 2023, "deliberately killed civilians, took hostages, pillaged and destroyed mosques, schools and health clinics" during its April attack on Zamzam, the largest refugee camp in North Darfur, Amnesty said.
The assault was part of the paramilitary force's push to seize the city of El-Fasher, the army's last stronghold in western Darfur, which the RSF captured in late October amid reports of more mass killings, sexual violence, abductions and looting.
Amnesty's findings draw on interviews with 29 survivors, journalists and medical staff, alongside verified footage and satellite imagery.
"The RSF's horrific and deliberate assault on desperate, hungry civilians in Zamzam camp laid bare once again its alarming disregard for human life," said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International's secretary general.
According to the rights group, RSF fighters attacked the camp over a period of three days, using explosive weapons and firing indiscriminately in densely populated areas, committing acts that "may amount to the war crimes of rape, murder and pillage".
The UN said the assault displaced around 400,000 people in just two days, from a camp estimated to house at least half a million.
Amnesty documented dozens of killings of civilians hiding in homes, at a clinic and inside a mosque.
Satellite imagery analysed by the organisation shows multiple fresh craters across residential districts, consistent with heavy shelling.
One survivor, an NGO volunteer, said RSF fighters would drive through her neighbourhood "and just shoot around and shoot anyone in the street".
"The only way to end these violations is to stem the flow of arms," said Callamard, calling for an expansion of an existing Darfur arms embargo to encompass all of Sudan.
The organisation also said all arms shipments to the United Arab Emirates "must immediately cease", due to "the very high risk of diversion to the RSF".
UN experts, diplomats and organisations including Amnesty have reported the UAE's extensive military backing of the RSF, which Abu Dhabi denies.
At the time, the RSF rejected claims of targeting civilians in Zamzam as "false".
Both sides in Sudan's war have been accused of indiscriminate attacks, with the RSF specifically accused of ethnically motivated killings, sexual violence and looting.
The wider conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million people.
