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Nawal Khalil had been serving as a healthcare worker for three years in the El Fasher South medical facility as the city became captured on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was occupied with patient care, including an elderly woman requiring a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel and civilians in their beds – including some women,” she states. “I don’t know what happened for my remaining 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 escaped from the city and walked for a day, injured and without food, to reach the town of Garney. “On the way, they took my phone and cash,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

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

This settlement, approximately 34 miles westward away from El Fasher, remains under the authority of the Sudan Liberation Army faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

Last Tuesday, the Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – accused the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. The UN reported that footage existed showing “dozens of unarmed men either being shot or deceased, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Background Context

Conflict erupted in Khartoum back on April 15, 2023 as a growing contest for power among the two primary factions of the armed forces leadership ultimately became violent.

Among the combatants stand the Sudanese military forces, which maintain general loyalty to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Opposing him stand the paramilitary forces belonging to the RSF, a collection of militias who follow the former 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 known as the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with widespread atrocities. During 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the RSF, deploying them to crush a fresh rebellion within South Darfur.

The fighting has thrown Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in modern times, according to UN officials. It has generated the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, forcing more than 10 million persons inside the nation plus 4 million who escaped to adjacent nations, generating growing stress on both Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Per observer reports, numerous more non-combatants continue to be held by the RSF and allied militias within Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Many are former soldiers belonging to the Sudanese military, the collaborative forces and other armed groups which had been combatting together with the army. They are reportedly being held as they lack funds for extortion payments ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), according to survivors who reached Tawila. Those unable to pay remain imprisoned for several days, and sometimes released only after falling seriously ill.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized army soldiers running from El Fasher to enter Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

A man named Adam Yagoub, 28, a motorist originating from Sennar in central Sudan, barely avoided execution after being captured by three armed men mounted on camels close to Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a knife,” he recounts, exhibiting his limb, which one of the fighters hit with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Then one of them recognised me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and begged them not to kill me. Our group contained 18 individuals who left El Fasher together, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub says he observed 22 corpses close to what he described as a “fake well” utilized by RSF forces and associated militias between Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he comments. “People walk all day without water, and when they get to it, the militias are waiting. They murdered 22 males at that location and carried the bodies off to hide them.”

A different medical worker who escaped El Fasher South hospital following Sunday's assault reported RSF militiamen penetrated via one entrance and began shooting at patients in the ER section, murdering no less than eight. “We ran out via another entrance, but they hit me on the head with a rifle,” he states.

Through a video declaration last Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said that any soldier or officer who had “violated the right of any person” would be held accountable.

Numerous individuals who fled El Fasher spent hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit prior to escaping westward under cover of darkness. Previously displaced households originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement were forced to move again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

People apprehended by RSF forces in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour