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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been serving as a nurse for the past three years in the El Fasher South medical facility after the city fell taken over on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was actively caring for the sick, including an elderly woman who needed a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel plus civilian patients in their beds – some of them women,” she states. “I don’t know what happened to my other patients. I needed to escape as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and thigh while RSF combatants gained control of the adjacent military command center. She escaped from the city and traveled on foot for one day, injured and without food, to reach the town of Garney. “On the way, they confiscated my phone and money,” she describes. “I ended up with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – comprising women and children – walked for two days to get to the settlement of Tawila located in northern Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was seized after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

Tawila, about 34 miles (55km) west from El Fasher, is governed by of the SLA-AW group led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

On Tuesday, the allied 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 said that footage existed featuring numerous unarmed males being shot or lying dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Historical Background

Conflict erupted within Khartoum during April of 2023 as a growing contest for power among the two primary factions within the military government eventually resulted in fatalities.

Among the combatants exist the official Sudanese army, that stay mostly faithful towards General al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Opposing him stand the paramilitary forces belonging to the RSF, a collection of militias which support the ex-warlord General Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the previous authoritarian leader Bashir's regime as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with extensive brutalities. Back in 2013, Bashir converted the organization to become the RSF, deploying them to crush a recent insurrection within South Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in recent history”, according to UN officials. It has produced the globe's most severe displacement emergency, scattering more than 10 million people within the country along with 4 million refugees to bordering states, creating increasing strain on Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Based on eyewitness accounts, many additional civilians remain trapped by the RSF and associated armed groups in the Garney area, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel belonging to the Sudanese military, the Joint Forces plus additional armed factions that had been fighting alongside the army. Reports indicate they're imprisoned as they lack funds for ransom requests between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), based on survivor accounts who reached Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying remain imprisoned for several days, and occasionally let go solely after developing critical health conditions.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted military personnel escaping El Fasher to come into Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

A man named Adam Yagoub, 28, a driver from Sennar in central Sudan, closely avoided death following his capture by three armed men mounted on camels in the Garney vicinity.

“They planned to decapitate me using a knife,” he recounts, showing his arm, which one of the fighters hit with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Subsequently one identified me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and urged them not to execute me. There were 18 of us who left El Fasher together, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub states he witnessed 22 deceased individuals in proximity to what he termed a fraudulent water source utilized by RSF forces and associated militias in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he says. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they get to it, the militiamen await. They killed 22 men there and carried the bodies off to conceal them.”

An additional nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility subsequent to Sunday's offensive stated RSF combatants came in using one doorway and commenced firing upon patients in the ER section, killing at least eight. “We fled through another gate, however they struck my head using a rifle,” he says.

Through a video declaration this past Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, said that any soldier or commander who infringed upon the rights of any individual would face consequences.

Numerous individuals who fled from El Fasher passed hours taking cover close to army artillery positions before running west under cover of darkness. Previously displaced households originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement were forced to move again, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

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