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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been working as a nurse for three years within the South El Fasher hospital when the city was seized last Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was busy treating patients, among them an older female patient who needed a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel and civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she states. “The outcome remains unknown regarding my other patients. I was forced to flee after they raided the medical facility.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, was shot in the right foot and upper leg during the RSF's seizure of the nearby military headquarters. She fled the city and walked for a day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to reach the town of Garney. “During the journey, they seized my mobile and currency,” she describes. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – featuring females and minors – walked for two days to get to the settlement of Tawila located in northern Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was seized after an 18-month siege.

This settlement, 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.

On Tuesday, the Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – charged the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. The UN said that visual evidence showed showing “dozens of unarmed men who were shot or found dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Background Context

Fighting broke out in Sudan's capital during April of 2023 as a growing contest for power between the two main factions of the armed forces leadership eventually resulted in fatalities.

From one perspective stand the Sudanese military forces, that stay mostly faithful to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Against him stand the paramilitary forces of the RSF paramilitary group, a collection of militias which support the ex-warlord General Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the previous authoritarian leader Bashir's regime as an Arab counterinsurgency militia named the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with extensive brutalities. During 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the Rapid Support Forces, using them to quell a fresh rebellion within South Darfur.

The fighting has thrown Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in modern times, based on UN statements. It has created the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, forcing more than 10 million persons inside the nation plus 4 million who escaped to bordering states, generating growing stress on Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Per observer reports, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and associated armed groups in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel belonging to the Sudanese military, the Joint Forces plus additional armed factions that were previously aligned with the military. They are reportedly being held because they cannot afford ransom requests ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), based on survivor accounts who arrived in Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been held for multiple days, and occasionally let go solely after 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, 28, a chauffeur from Sennar within central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed subsequent to his seizure by three armed men mounted on camels close to Garney.

“They intended to behead me with a blade,” he recounts, showing his arm, that one combatant struck with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother had worked with me – and urged them not to execute me. There were 18 of us who exited El Fasher as a group, but only eight made it to Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub says he observed 22 corpses near what he called a deceptive well utilized by RSF forces and allied militias in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he says. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they get to it, the militias are waiting. They murdered 22 males at that location and carried the bodies off to obscure them.”

A different medical worker who fled the El Fasher South medical facility subsequent to Sunday's offensive stated RSF combatants came in through one gate and began shooting at patients in the emergency ward, killing at least eight. “We ran out via another entrance, but they hit me on the head using a rifle,” he states.

Via a recorded message this past Wednesday, the head of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or official who breached the rights of any civilian would be punished.

Numerous individuals who fled El Fasher utilized hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit before fleeing west under darkness's protection. Families already uprooted from the city’s Abu Shouk camp had to displace once more, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before eventually heading for Tawila.

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