The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have handed over control of the massive Zamzam camp for displaced people to Colombian mercenaries, a camp spokesman alleged on Sunday, months after the RSF seized the area.
The allegation follows the broadcast of video clips by the Sudanese army, purportedly recovered from a dead fighter’s phone, which appear to show Spanish-speaking mercenaries inside Zamzam camp. The army claimed the men were Colombian nationals killed in recent battles for El Fasher.
“We have witnessed with our own eyes a dual crime: the displacement of our people last April at the hands of the RSF militia, and now the occupation of the camp by foreign mercenaries,” said Zamzam spokesman Mohamed Khamis Douda in a statement.
He described seeing armed, Spanish-speaking groups moving freely “among the rubble of homes and the unburied bodies of victims,” calling it a war crime and part of a conspiracy to hide a massacre.
Douda argued the mercenaries’ presence refutes RSF claims that its attacks only targeted military sites. “It is a war of annihilation against unarmed civilians, followed by a systematic occupation with the help of foreign mercenaries,” he said.
The claims build on earlier reports. Military sources previously told Sudan Tribune that after seizing the camp, the RSF converted it into a military barracks, installing Howitzer cannons used to shell El Fasher from the site.
The RSF launched its assault on Zamzam, located 12 kilometres southwest of El Fasher, on April 11. According to aid groups, the attack forced approximately 499,000 people—nearly the entire population—to flee before the RSF gained full control within three days.
The Malakal Press 
Leave a comment