Latest news with #AltahirHashim
The Guardian
01-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The attack on Zamzam refugee camp and what it means for the Sudan war
Zamzam, in Darfur, has been a place of refuge for decades. A sprawling camp in western Sudan, some have estimated that it houses up to 700,000 people – a place of relative safety from the violence that has engulfed the region over the last 20 years. It was also one of the last holdouts in Darfur, one of the few places in the region not yet under the control of the Rapid Support Forces. The paramilitary group has fought a devastating civil war with the Sudanese army since April 2023. As the Guardian journalist Kaamil Ahmed reports, it was never going to last. In mid-April, the RSF launched a devastating attack on the camp itself, killing as many as 400 people, and causing hundreds of thousands to flee across the desert. It was, perhaps, part of a concerted plan, for in the same week that the RSF took Zamzam, it announced a breakaway government over all the Sudanese territory it controls. Just weeks earlier, the Sudanese government had its own decisive moment, finally wresting back control of the capital, Khartoum. So will Sudan be effectively split into two? The human rights activist Altahir Hashim tells Michael Safi what it has been like for him trying to learn what happened to his family in Zamzam, and his fears for the war in Sudan ahead.
Arab News
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Why Darfur is now the center of Sudan's power struggle and humanitarian crisis
LONDON: A haze of red dust hangs over the cracked roads of Al-Fasher. Children stumble through the rubble-strewn outskirts, barefoot and silent, their faces taut with exhaustion. A woman collapses beside a water container, her two toddlers clinging to her scarf. Nearby, a man holds a torn piece of cardboard with the word 'Zamzam' scrawled in charcoal — a word that no longer means refuge. The camp it refers to, once one of the largest displacement sites in Sudan's North Darfur, has been ravaged by violence. On April 11, armed groups reportedly linked to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces launched a deadly assault on the city of Al-Fasher, Zamzam, and another displacement camp called Abu Shouk, forcing tens of thousands to flee. According to preliminary reports from the UN and humanitarian agencies, more than 400 civilians — including women, children, and up to a dozen aid workers — may have been killed in the space of three days, in attacks that also struck the nearby town of Um Kadadah. The RSF said the camps in question were being used as bases by what it called 'mercenary factions.' It also denied targeting civilians and accused its rivals of orchestrating a media campaign, using actors and staged scenes within the camp to falsely incriminate it. The assault sent shockwaves throughout the region. More than 400,000 people fled, many of them to already overwhelmed towns like Tawila. Others disappeared into the hills of Jebel Marra, carrying only what they could hold. Zamzam is now under RSF control. 'It has been completely overrun — killing, raping, burning, and taking people hostage. No one remains unless they are prisoners,' Altahir Hashim, a human rights advocate who once lived in Zamzam, told Arab News. Now based in the UK, Hashim monitors desperate voice messages sent by survivors still in hiding. 'Every morning I hear names of the dead, pleas for food, calls for medicine,' he said. 'But no one is listening.' For many in Darfur, the violence echoes a familiar pattern — and a painful reminder of promises unkept. This April marked 20 years since the UN Security Council referred atrocities in the region to the International Criminal Court. But for those displaced today, the anniversary feels hollow. 'The killers are still free. The victims are still forgotten,' said Hashim, referring to the genocide perpetrated by the RSF's forerunner, the Janjaweed. 'We are reliving what the world said would never happen again. 'The people arriving in Al-Fasher have nothing. No shoes, no food, no blankets. Famine was already creeping through Zamzam before the attack — now it's an open wound.' Although the Sudanese Armed Forces have recently made headway against their RSF rivals, retaking the capital, Khartoum, in March, the center of the conflict has shifted elsewhere since erupting suddenly on April 15, 2023. Al-Fasher itself has become the last major stronghold of the Sudanese state in Darfur region. Here, tens of thousands of newly displaced civilians crowd into schools, mosques, and courtyards. The city, once a lifeline for aid distribution across the wider region, is now itself under siege. Forces reportedly affiliated to the RSF surround it, choking off humanitarian access and isolating the population within. Dr. Ibrahim Abdullah Khatir, director general of North Darfur's Ministry of Health, is among the few officials still coordinating medical efforts in the city. He described conditions as 'beyond collapse.' Khatir told Arab News: 'Even pregnant women needing cesarean sections are being turned away.' He added: 'We have received reports of mothers dying in labor because there are no doctors, no medicine, no way out.' Fuel has all but vanished from the city. Diesel prices have quintupled, halting the trucks that once delivered drinking water to outer neighborhoods. The city's main water stations are out of service. 'Children are collapsing from dehydration,' Khatir said. 'And now, our staff can't even get to the clinics.' Al-Fasher was never untouched by conflict, but it was a place where aid agencies could still operate and displaced people could seek help. Now, with RSF fighters reportedly deploying drones and artillery in surrounding areas, even that fragile space is crumbling. Survivors describe the flight from Zamzam as a gauntlet of fear. Amina, a mother of four, arrived in Al-Fasher after walking for three days. 'We hid in dry riverbeds and behind trees,' she said. 'My youngest is sick now — he hasn't eaten properly in a week. There is no milk, no clean water. We are waiting for help that hasn't come.' Others, like 14-year-old Abdulrahman, came alone. 'I lost my parents in the crowd. I don't know if they made it,' he said, huddled beneath a tarp shared with strangers. 'I just walked with people who were running.' The UN children's fund, UNICEF, has warned that more than 825,000 children around Al-Fasher are at daily risk of death due to malnutrition and a lack of clean water. Humanitarian organizations are mobilizing aid — including 1,800 metric tons of food and 9,000 non-food kits — but with road access cut off and security deteriorating, deliveries have stalled. Several agencies say their staff remain trapped inside the city with no safe evacuation routes. Medecins Sans Frontieres suspended operations in Zamzam earlier this year due to insecurity. Other groups have pulled back or reduced staff due to threats and attacks. One international aid worker in Al-Fasher, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arab News: 'We've gone from emergency mode to survival mode. There's nothing left to distribute. And no guarantee we're even safe.' The violence has once again drawn attention to Darfur's long and bloody history of displacement, exclusion, and impunity. In the early 2000s, the region was the site of mass killings and systematic ethnic targeting. Today, many Darfuris say the same patterns are playing out again. 'This isn't just war,' Hashim said. 'This is designed to erase entire communities. To remove them, not just physically, but from the map of Sudan.' Fatima, a local nurse working in a makeshift clinic near Al-Fasher's central mosque, said she sees the emotional toll every day. 'We don't have proper medicine, so we clean wounds with salt water. But it's the look in people's eyes that haunts me. They are afraid to hope.' Despite urgent appeals from the UN and Sudan's humanitarian coordinator, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, little progress has been made to secure humanitarian corridors or even a temporary ceasefire to allow aid in. 'Time is running out,' Dr. Khatir said. 'We are out of water. Out of food. Out of medicine. And soon, out of time.' Al-Fasher holds more than just strategic value; it is the historical and cultural heart of Darfur. For many here, it represents the last place left to defend human dignity. 'If Al-Fasher is lost,' Dr. Khatir said, 'then the hope for Darfur is lost too.'
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Sudan's news blackout stokes fear and confusion after refugee camp attacks
Sudan's information blackout has left relatives of those in Sudan's Zamzam refugee camp struggling for news of their safety after it was overrun by militiamen at the weekend. As leaders across the globe prepared to meet for peace talks in London to pressure the backers of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army to agree a ceasefire, the RSF launched a deadly assault that led to it seizing Zamzam after weeks of tightening its siege. Campaigners said the dearth of information on the violence, which has reportedly killed hundreds of civilians, highlighted the need for the talks to prioritise restoring communications to allow communities under attack to warn each other, to give better access to healthcare and to facilitate human rights documentation. Altahir Hashim, whose family was living in Zamzam, said: 'Zamzam as an IDP [internally displaced persons] camp no longer exists. The RSF has completely overrun the camp – killing, raping, burning and committing all kinds of atrocities. The communications are really bad and I haven't been able to speak to my family.' On Friday, nine medical workers from the aid organisation Relief International were killed when the RSF raided Zamzam, while the Sudanese American Physicians Association (Sapa), said the manager of a children's health centre was also killed. The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said its team at Tawila, another displacement camp near El Fasher, has seen about 10,000 people arrive in 48 hours suffering from dehydration and exhaustion. For two decades Zamzam has hosted people displaced during the 2000s in attacks by the army and the Janjaweed militias – who were later formalised into the RSF – but its population has grown to about 700,000 during the current civil war as people have fled other parts of the Darfur region. Hashim is part of a group of Darfuris abroad who have raised funds to buy and airdrop satellite phones into Darfur as well as walkie-talkies to allow local communication during emergencies. He said the communications blackout also made it difficult for people to receive money sent from relatives abroad through mobile banking systems. The limited information that has emerged from Zamzam has often relied on satellite communications – whether through imagery, phones or the Starlink service, which uses satellites rather than land-based communication towers to provide internet. But these services can be unreliable and are costly, meaning that while they are used by some activists in Darfur, others remain unable to be contacted. One video shared by the group North Darfur Observatory for Human Rights showed people fleeing Zamzam with their belongings strapped to camels and donkeys. Often the main source of information from Darfur has come from videos recorded by RSF fighters themselves of the atrocities and some have emerged showing their fighters entering Zamzam on pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns with burning buildings in the background. Shayna Lewis, from the US-based organisation Preventing & Ending Mass Atrocities (Paema).'We have reports of civilians being hunted and executed in the streets of Zamzam, but we are unable to consistently communicate with people as the networks are off and the internet can only be accessed through Starlink access points. Starlink access is sporadic, expensive and can be turned off by the belligerents at will.' Paema said the talks in London should prioritise restoring communications as a way to quickly relieve suffering in Sudan. Sapa, which operates medical facilities in El Fasher, said the last message it received from its teams in Zamzam on Sunday afternoon was: 'Zamzam under the control of the RSF.' Khalid Mishain, of the Sudanese human rights group Youth Citizens Observers Network, said they had lost contact with their observers in the area since the attack. He said the communications blackout had been a impediment to human rights documentation throughout the conflict. 'People have to write the information down, keep it with them and then secretly move to areas where there is communications and send it to us,' said Mishain. 'We have civilians suffering and no one knows about it, and those who report on it have to risk their life because of the communications blackout.'
