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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been serving as a medical volunteer over a three-year period within the South El Fasher hospital after the city fell captured on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was busy treating patients, featuring one senior woman who needed a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“They killed six wounded soldiers plus civilian patients in their beds – including some women,” she says. “I am unaware of the fate to my other patients. I had to run when they stormed the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and her thigh during the RSF's seizure of the closeby army headquarters. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, wounded and without nourishment, to arrive at Garney town. “During the journey, they confiscated my phone and currency,” she describes. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

Over a thousand individuals – featuring females and minors – walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila within North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which fell under control after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

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

Last Tuesday, the Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – blamed the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. United Nations officials stated there were videos showing “dozens of unarmed men being shot or lying dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Background Context

Hostilities commenced within Khartoum during April of 2023 as a growing contest for power between the two main factions within the military government ultimately became violent.

Among the combatants stand the Sudanese military forces, who remain broadly loyal towards General al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Opposing him stand the paramilitary forces of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a collection of militias which support the ex-warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the former dictatorial ruler Bashir's regime as an Arab counterinsurgency militia called the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with widespread atrocities. Back in 2013, Bashir reformed the faction into the RSF, sending them to suppress a new uprising in South Darfur.

The fighting has thrown Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history”, based on UN statements. It has created the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, forcing more than 10 million persons internally along with 4 million refugees to adjacent nations, creating increasing strain on both Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

According to witnesses, thousands more civilians remain trapped by the RSF and allied militias in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from the Sudanese army, the allied Joint Forces plus additional armed factions which had been combatting together with the army. They are apparently detained as they lack funds for ransom demands ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who reached Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been held for multiple days, and occasionally freed only when developing critical health conditions.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized government troops fleeing El Fasher to enter Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a driver from Sennar within central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed subsequent to his seizure by three militiamen on camels near Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a blade,” he recounts, showing his arm, that one combatant struck using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Subsequently one identified me – his brother had worked with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. There were 18 of us who exited El Fasher as a group, but only eight made it to Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub reports he witnessed 22 deceased individuals near what he called a “fake well” used by the RSF and allied militias in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he explains. “People walk all day without water, and when they reach it, the militias are waiting. They murdered 22 males at that location and removed the corpses to hide them.”

Another nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive said RSF fighters entered through one gate and commenced firing upon patients in the emergency ward, murdering no less than eight. “We fled through another gate, but they hit me on the head using a rifle,” he recounts.

Via a recorded message this past Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said that any soldier or official who breached the rights of any individual would face consequences.

Many of those who escaped El Fasher utilized hours taking cover close to army artillery positions before running west under darkness's protection. Already displaced families from the city’s Abu Shouk camp were compelled to relocate again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before finally moving toward Tawila.

Individuals seized by the RSF in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour