Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacked a refugee camp in Darfur on Monday, killing at least 40 civilians and injuring 19 others, rescuers said.

The RSF stormed Abu Shouk, opening fire inside homes and on the streets, the local Emergency Response Room said, reporting "more than 40 civilians" dead at the camp north of El-Fasher – the last city in the western Darfur region still held by the Sudanese army, at war with the paramilitary group since April 2023.

In recent months, North Darfur state capital El-Fasher and nearby displacement camps have come under renewed attacks by the RSF, after the group withdrew from Sudan's capital Khartoum earlier this year.

A major RSF offensive in April on Zamzam, a nearby displacement camp, forced tens of thousands of people to flee again – with many of them now sheltering inside El-Fasher.

Deadly war

The RSF controls nearly all of Darfur and, with its allies, parts of Sudan's south while the army dominates the country's north, east and centre.

The war, now in its third year, has killed thousands of people, displaced millions and created what the United Nations describes as the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis.

Last year, famine was declared in three camps around El-Fasher, including Abu Shouk, and the United Nations had estimated it would take hold in the city itself by last May.

A lack of data has prevented an official famine declaration.