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Nawal Khalil had been working as a nurse for the past three years within the South El Fasher hospital when the city was captured on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was actively caring for the sick, among them an older female patient requiring a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“They killed six wounded soldiers along with civilians in their beds – including some women,” she says. “I don’t know what happened for my remaining patients. I was forced to flee as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, 27, was shot in the right foot and her thigh during the RSF's seizure of the nearby military headquarters. She escaped from the city and traveled on foot for one day, wounded and without nourishment, to reach the town of Garney. “On the way, they took my phone and money,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – featuring females and minors – traveled on foot for two days to reach the town of Tawila in North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which fell under control following an 18-month blockade.

This settlement, around 55 kilometers to the west from El Fasher, is under the control by the SLA faction commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

Last Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – blamed the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. United Nations officials stated that footage existed depicting dozens of weaponless men who were shot or found dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Background Context

Hostilities commenced within Khartoum back on April 15, 2023 as an escalating power struggle between the two main factions of the armed forces leadership ultimately became violent.

On one side exist the official Sudanese army, that stay mostly faithful towards General al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Challenging him stand the paramilitary forces of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a gathering of armed factions that obey the former warlord General Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the previous authoritarian leader Bashir's regime as an Arab anti-rebellion militia called the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with widespread atrocities. During 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the Rapid Support Forces, deploying them to crush a fresh rebellion in South Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in contemporary history, based on UN statements. It has generated the globe's most severe displacement emergency, forcing more than 10 million persons within the country plus 4 million who escaped to bordering states, generating growing stress on both Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

According to witnesses, many additional civilians continue to be held by the RSF and allied militias within Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from the Sudanese army, the allied Joint Forces and other armed groups that had been fighting alongside the army. They are reportedly being held since they cannot pay ransom demands of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who arrived in Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been held for multiple days, and sometimes released only after becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted army soldiers running from El Fasher to come into Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a motorist originating from Sennar within central Sudan, closely avoided death following his capture by three armed men mounted on camels near Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a knife,” he tells, displaying his arm, that one combatant struck using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother had worked with me – and urged them not to execute me. Our group contained 18 individuals who left El Fasher together, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies in proximity to what he termed a “fake well” employed by the RSF and allied militias between Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he says. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and when they get to it, the militias are waiting. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and took the bodies away to hide them.”

An additional nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital following Sunday's assault reported RSF militiamen penetrated through one gate and opened fire on patients in the ER section, causing at least eight fatalities. “We escaped through a different gate, yet they assaulted my head using a rifle,” he says.

Through a video declaration last Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or official who breached the rights of any individual would face consequences.

Many of those who escaped El Fasher utilized hours concealing themselves near military artillery before fleeing west under cover of darkness. Previously displaced households from the city’s Abu Shouk camp were compelled to relocate again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before eventually heading for Tawila.

Those captured by the RSF in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour