El Fasher , April 15(Darfur 24)
A number of families and relatives of missing persons in the Zamzam camp for internally displaced persons( IDPs), located 12 kilometers southwest of El Fasher, revealed the loss of their children and relatives after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took control of the camp, amidst a state of fear, panic, and mass flight of displacedpeople.
RSF captured Zamzam camp on Sunday after three days of fighting with the army and the joint force.
Zahra Mustafa Abdel Karim, one of the survivors, told Darfur 24 that she lost three of her children—Mohammed, Mustafa, and Maab, aged between 6 and 10—as residents fled at night after the camp was stormed by Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
She added, “I searched for them for an entire day after arriving in El Fasher, and I sent messages to the Tawila area, but to no avail.”
Eyewitness Suleiman al-Zein Suleiman reported seeing several young men arrested by the RSF and taken to the camp’s police station after it was taken over, including his nephew, without being able to intervene.
Suleiman indicated that the exact number of missing persons remains unknown, especially with thousands fleeing to Tawila, El Fasher, and Abshok camp, and with communications networks cut off, complicating documentation and investigation.
In the same context, Mecca Adam Khater, the mother of a missing girl, told Darfur 24 that her daughter went missing on Saturday evening while fleeing with neighbors to El Fasher, without any information. There has been no information about them so far.
Darfur 24 verified videos posted by members of the Rapid Support Forces, one of which shows dozens of young civilians chanting slogans in support of the Rapid Support Forces, at the request of a soldier.
Another video shows the second-in-command of the Rapid Support Forces, Abdel Rahim Dagalo, asking some women to be patient, pledging to bring their missing relatives home.
Abu Bakr Sharif, a volunteer at Zamzam camp, said that the number of missing persons reported so far exceeds 400 people from various sectors of the camp, including the areas of Jaflo, Salomat, and the schools housing displaced persons.
Sharif reported that search campaigns extended to the areas of Abjarboun, Al-Mazra’a, and Abu Shouk camp, without any cases being found. He noted that some children as young as fifteen years old were arrested, according to the testimonies of elderly people who had recently arrived at the camp.
He reported that some of the displaced had fled to the Tawila area, while a number of the wounded had died from severe bleeding. Bodies remain inside the camp, complicating search operations and increasing the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the missing.
Sharif expected initial results regarding the missing persons to emerge within a week, after coordination with volunteers in the town of Tawila to collect names and cross-reference them with records.