RSF Shells Darfur Camp, Killing at Least 14, Medics and Activists Say

Civilians are detained by RSF fighters as they try to escape the besieged city of El Fasher on August 20, 2025.

August 21, 2025 (EL FASHER) – At least 14 people were killed in shelling by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the Abu Shouk displacement camp in North Darfur on Wednesday and Thursday, according to medical and activist groups.

The attacks have worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis in the sprawling camp north of El Fasher, the last major city in the vast Darfur region not under RSF control.

The Sudan Doctors Network said an RSF artillery strike on the camp on Wednesday evening killed nine people, including five children and four women, and left 18 others wounded.

In a statement, the network accused the RSF of deliberately targeting the camp and called the attack part of an “ongoing cycle of genocide and ethnic cleansing.”

Separately, the Abu Shouk Camp Emergency Room, an activist group, reported that at least five people were killed and more than five were injured on Thursday as shells landed on homes.

The humanitarian situation in the camp has deteriorated sharply, with aid groups warning of spreading starvation. The emergency room said free kitchens had been forced to close after being directly targeted and that about seven people were now dying weekly from malnutrition.

It also reported that 98% of the camp’s water facilities were out of service due to vandalism and that the main market had shut down following an RSF incursion, turning a third of the camp into an active military zone.

The fighting around El Fasher, a humanitarian hub for the region, has intensified in recent months. The city has been besieged by the RSF, trapping hundreds of thousands of civilians.

On Aug. 11, activists reported that RSF forces killed at least 40 people during a previous incursion into the Abu Shouk camp before being pushed back by the army and its allied forces.

War erupted in Sudan in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF, devastating the country’s infrastructure, displacing millions, and creating the world’s largest hunger crisis.