Sudanese army accuses RSF of handing over Zamzam camp to Colombian mercenaries
Once a refuge for over 300,000 displaced people, the camp was later transformed into a heavily fortified military and artillery base, according to local media reports.
Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have allegedly handed over control of the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur to Colombian mercenaries, a camp spokesperson claimed on Sunday, months after the RSF captured the camp.
The RSF seized Zamzam on April 13, following a three-day assault on the Sudanese army and allied civilian groups.
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Once a refuge for over 300,000 displaced people, the camp was later transformed into a heavily fortified military and artillery base, according to local media reports.
The fresh allegations emerged as the Sudanese army released video footage—reportedly retrieved from the phone of a deceased fighter—which appears to show Spanish-speaking men. The army claims these individuals, believed to be Colombian mercenaries, were killed in recent clashes around El Fasher.
The Colombian government has previously expressed regret over the involvement of its citizens as mercenaries in Sudan, stating it was “shocked and dismayed” by their participation in the conflict and promising to repatriate those identified.
Dual crime
"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 spokesperson Mohamed Khamis Douda in a statement, as quoted by The Sudan Tribune.
Douda also reported sightings of armed, Spanish-speaking men roaming the camp, moving among destroyed homes and unburied bodies—a scene he described as a war crime and a deliberate cover-up of a massacre.
"It is a war of annihilation against unarmed civilians, followed by a systematic occupation with the help of foreign mercenaries," he said.
According to the 2025 Global Report on Internal Displacement, released by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), Sudan recorded the highest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) ever documented in a single country. In 2024 alone, 11.6 million people were forced to flee their homes amid the deepening civil war.
The report attributes the mass displacement to ongoing violence that began in April 2023, when fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF.
Initially centred in Khartoum and Darfur, the power struggle has since spread across multiple regions, leaving behind a trail of destruction, civilian casualties, and widespread displacement.
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