Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have carried out yet another deadly assault, this time targeting one of the country’s most vulnerable communities.

On Monday, RSF fighters stormed Abu Shouk camp, a famine-hit displacement settlement in Darfur, killing at least 40 civilians and injuring 19 others, according to the local Emergency Response Room, a volunteer-led aid network operating on the front lines since the war erupted in April 2023.

Witness accounts and rescue teams report that civilians were gunned down in their homes and shot in the streets, with victims killed either by stray bullets or direct executions.

Located on the northern outskirts of Al-Fasher, Abu Shouk is in the last major Darfur city still held by Sudan’s army. This strategic location has made it a flashpoint in the war which has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and triggered what the United Nations calls the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.

Who are the RSF

The Rapid Support Forces were formed in 2013 out of the Janjaweed militias accused of carrying out atrocities during the Darfur conflict in the early 2000s. Originally mobilised by the Sudanese government to crush uprisings, the RSF has since evolved into a powerful and heavily armed paramilitary group with control over gold mining, smuggling routes and border security. Its fighters have been repeatedly accused by human rights groups of committing massacres, sexual violence and scorched earth tactics against civilians.

The attack on Abu Shouk camp adds to a long record of RSF brutality and highlights the growing lawlessness in Sudan as the conflict with the national army drags on without a political resolution.