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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been serving as a healthcare worker over a three-year period 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, among them an older female patient requiring a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“Six injured soldiers were killed and civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she states. “I don’t know what happened for my remaining patients. I needed to escape when they stormed the hospital.”

Khalil, 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and upper leg while RSF combatants gained control of the adjacent military command center. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, wounded and without nourishment, to reach the town of Garney. “During the journey, they took my phone and money,” she describes. “I ended up with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – comprising women and children – 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.

Tawila, approximately 34 miles westward from El Fasher, remains under the authority of the SLA-AW group led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

Last Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – blamed the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. The UN reported that footage existed featuring numerous unarmed males who were shot or found dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Background Context

Conflict erupted within Khartoum back on April 15, 2023 as an escalating power struggle between the two main factions within the military government finally turned deadly.

On one side stand the Sudanese military forces, that stay mostly faithful towards General al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Against him are the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a collection of militias that obey the former warlord General Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab counterinsurgency militia named the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with massive human rights violations. Back in 2013, Bashir transformed the group to become the RSF, using them to quell a fresh rebellion 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 world’s worst displacement crisis, forcing more than 10 million persons within the country plus 4 million who escaped to adjacent nations, putting mounting pressure on Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Per observer reports, numerous more non-combatants stay confined by RSF forces and partner militias in the Garney area, southwest from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel belonging to the Sudanese military, the Joint Forces plus additional armed factions which had been combatting together with the army. Reports indicate they're imprisoned since they cannot pay ransom requests ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been held for multiple days, and in some cases released only after falling seriously ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted military personnel escaping El Fasher to enter Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a chauffeur from Sennar in central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed following his capture by three camel-riding militiamen close to Garney.

“They intended to behead me with a knife,” he tells, showing his arm, that one combatant struck with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother was my colleague – and pleaded with them to spare me. Our group contained 18 individuals who left El Fasher together, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub reports he witnessed 22 deceased individuals near what he called a “fake well” utilized by RSF forces and partner armed groups along the Garney-Tawila route. “This is an ambush,” he comments. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and when they get to it, the militiamen await. They murdered 22 males at that location and carried the bodies off to hide them.”

An additional nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility following Sunday's assault reported RSF militiamen penetrated through one gate and commenced firing upon patients in the ER section, causing at least eight fatalities. “We ran out via another entrance, but they hit me on the head with a firearm,” he says.

In a video statement this past Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, said that any soldier or official who breached the rights of any person” would be held accountable.

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

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