The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were reported to have attacked North Darfur's largest camp for displaced people between April 11 and 14.
Witnesses and investigators recounted mass executions, abductions, and killings with impunity.
Although initial reports were of up to 400 civilian deaths, the local committee set up to ascertain the death toll said over 1,500 bodies had been counted already and that the figure will likely rise as many more lay rotting in homes, fields, and on roads across the camp.
Mohammed Sharif, a committee member and also part of the camp's defunct administration, told AFP the actual toll could be more than double.
The camp is now under the control of the RSF forces, and this has been an obstruction in terms of access to care and humanitarian assistance.
One of Sudan's Worst Atrocities
After the Darfur conflict, the next highest death tolls came at the hands of government-allied forces -- a mass killing in West Darfur nearly two years ago is estimated to have killed about 30,000 people, making Zamzam the second largest massacre of Sudan's conflict.
One senior Darfur expert with decades of experience in the region, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the violence belonged up there with the early 2000s genocide taking place at Zamzam.
''Exactly, every single testimony from everyone who escaped them knew family members had been murdered. I have never seen that before," they said.
Abdallah Abugarda, of the UK-based Darfur Diaspora Association, said he knew 4,500 other members who were related to someone killed in the raid.
He said that there were at least another 2,000 residents from Zamzam whose fate is unknown.
The reach of what happened there was monstrous, yet international outcry has been minimal.
The massacre at Zamzam is definitely one of the most despicable crimes in modern world history. But still no global outrage has followed," Abugarda stated.
Violence and Displacement Continue for Survivors
Many of the survivors of this attack are also now "among the most vulnerable people on earth," according to Claire Nicolet, from Médecins Sans Frontières: ongoing violence outside is combined with looting, sexual abuse, and dire conditions in fast-built transit camps.
The Rann attack reportedly abducted hundreds of women. There were more than 20 women who had been taken to Nyala, a base of the RSF about 160 kilometers from Zamzam, confirmed by Sharif.
The recent spate of incidents has further added to international outcry for accountability.
The International Criminal Court said in July that it had "reasonable grounds" to believe war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed in Darfur.
Broader Crisis Across Darfur
The Zamzam attack is just the latest in a broader pattern of violence characterizing Sudan's ongoing conflict, which started in April 2023 when fighting broke out between the RSF and the Sudanese military.
The combatants in the war have both been accused of some of the worst human rights abuses, including mass rape.
Last year, more than 10,000 people — mostly from Masalit and other non-Arab communities — died in a two-month rampage in West Darfur's capital of Geneina. – Some 800 people were killed in clashes a month later, between UN officials and Sudan scholars, who said they occurred in El Geneina constituency.
Also, the Sudanese military continues its indiscriminate bombing campaigns against civilian areas in a further campaign of death and destruction.
Sudan is ground zero of the world's largest ongoing humanitarian crisis, and as a war rages on, it shows no sign of abating.
