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Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a nurse for the past three years within the South El Fasher hospital when the city was taken over on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was busy treating patients, among them an older female patient in need of a transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“Six injured soldiers were killed and civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she states. “I am unaware of the fate regarding my other patients. I had to run as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and her thigh as RSF fighters took control of the nearby military headquarters. She escaped from the city and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, injured and without food, to arrive at Garney town. “Along the route, they confiscated my phone and currency,” she says. “I was left with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – featuring females and minors – traveled on foot for two days to arrive at Tawila town in North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which fell under control after an 18-month siege.

This settlement, around 55 kilometers to the west away from El Fasher, remains under the authority by the SLA faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

Last Tuesday, the Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – blamed the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians following the urban center's takeover. The UN reported that footage existed depicting dozens of weaponless men either being shot or deceased, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Background Context

Hostilities commenced within Khartoum on 15 April 2023 when an intensifying power struggle involving the two key groups of the military regime eventually resulted in fatalities.

Among the combatants stand the Sudanese military forces, who remain broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Against him are the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an assembly of militia groups who follow the former warlord General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir himself as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force known as the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with extensive brutalities. In 2013, Bashir transformed the group into the Rapid Support Forces, using them to quell a recent insurrection in southern Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in contemporary history, as per UN representatives. It has produced the world’s worst displacement crisis, scattering more than 10 million people within the country plus 4 million who escaped into neighbouring countries, creating increasing strain upon Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Based on eyewitness accounts, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and allied militias in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from Sudan's armed forces, the allied Joint Forces and other militant organizations that were previously aligned with the military. They are apparently detained since they cannot pay ransom demands of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), according to survivors who arrived in Tawila. People who cannot afford payment remain imprisoned for several days, and in some cases released only after developing critical health conditions.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted army soldiers running from El Fasher to enter Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

A man named Adam Yagoub, 28, a motorist originating from Sennar within central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed subsequent to his seizure by three camel-riding militiamen near Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a blade,” he informs, displaying his arm, that one combatant struck with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Subsequently one identified me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and begged them not to kill me. We were 18 people who left El Fasher together, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies near what he called a “fake well” utilized by RSF forces and partner armed groups between Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he comments. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and when they get to it, the armed groups lie in wait. They killed 22 men there and took the bodies away to conceal them.”

A different medical worker who escaped El Fasher South hospital following Sunday's assault reported RSF militiamen penetrated through one gate and opened fire on patients within the emergency department, causing at least eight fatalities. “We ran out via another entrance, but they hit me on the head using a rifle,” he recounts.

Through a video declaration on Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, said that any soldier or official who breached the rights of any individual would face consequences.

Numerous individuals who fled El Fasher utilized hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit prior to escaping westward under darkness's protection. Already displaced families from the city’s Abu Shouk camp had to displace once more, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before eventually heading for Tawila.

Individuals seized by the RSF within Garney reportedly received {water mixed with flour|flour