TRANSCRIPT
Scenes of panic and terror in Sudan as markets, medical centres and homes are set ablaze by militants.
Zamzam refugee camp in North Darfur, home to an estimated one and a half million displaced people has been under attack by the Rapid Support Forces for over a week now.
The people who had fled here in search of safety - are now being forced to flee again.
Caught up in all this chaos is the family of Musab Hassan.
A member of the Zaghawa ethnic group – he survived what in the early 2000s the International Criminal Court labelled as genocide in Darfur.
Now – from the safety of Sydney – he’s spent every day waiting on word from the family he left behind.
"I lost four of my friends and three of my relatives including my uncle who used to be a very prominent poetry in Zaghawa language and one of the most popular comedian in our culture, he got killed because the RSF tried to approach his house and he refused. So he got killed in front of his children in a peace camp."
Throughout the war internet and telephone services have been heavily disrupted, meaning communication is rare and fleeting.
Mr Hassan, who also serves as Chairman of the Zaghawa Community Association of New South Wales and Canberra, has been able to see glimpses of the destruction through videos sent from his loved ones."For us we have no luxury to even have a long conversation, because they just come for a few moments and go away because it's not safe... They immediately tell you that X and Y from the family got killed today or injured today or kidnapped today or even raped today. And we get those kind of news every day."
"Can you hear me?"
After hours of attempts, we were finally able to speak with Musab's contacts inside the camp.
"They burned the market and the entire centre, even the shelters. There were wounded and dead, including many women and children. They kidnapped many children and we do not know their whereabouts until now."
The Zamzam refugee camp was the first place famine was declared in a UN-backed assessment last August.
This latest attack has only escalated the crisis.
"The situation is beyond difficult. The children here suffer from severe malnutrition and the centres that provided treatment have closed their doors. Some of the children are still suffering from malnutrition and some have died due to malnutrition, and we have more than 40 deaths due to malnutrition."
This violence has erupted out of the almost two-year-old conflict between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces.
Amid the struggle for power, RSF militants seized control of almost all of Sudan's Darfur region with their attacks on the local Masalit, Fur and Zaghawa ethnic groups declared a genocide by the US State Department in January 2025.
Musab is hoping Australia will do the same.
"When the government in Australia called for example a ceasefire in Darfur for example, this should be changed because it is a genocide taking place. I'm pretty sure that... my 90 years old grandma and my 90 years old grandfather, they have no weapon to fight, to cease fire.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says in a statement that: "The Australian Government is extremely concerned by the conflict" and they "unequivocally condemn the appalling violence directed at civilians."
For Musab, such condemnation and concern is welcome - but it provides little comfort as he despairs for the safety of his family.
"If it continues like that without international intervention, at the end of this project the entire community of two million people in Darfur of the Zaghawa community is going to be wiped out."
