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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been serving as a nurse over a three-year period in the El Fasher South medical facility as the city became captured on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was actively caring for the sick, among them an older female patient who needed a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“They killed six wounded soldiers and civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she says. “I am unaware of the fate for my remaining patients. I was forced to flee as they invaded the hospital.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and upper leg while RSF combatants gained control of the closeby army headquarters. She escaped from the city and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, injured and without food, to get to the settlement of Garney. “On the way, they seized my mobile and cash,” she explains. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

More than 1,000 people – featuring females and minors – traveled on foot for two days to reach the town of Tawila located in northern Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which fell under control after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

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

On Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – charged the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants after the city's capture. The UN reported that visual evidence showed featuring numerous unarmed males either being shot or deceased, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Background Context

Hostilities commenced within Khartoum back on April 15, 2023 as an escalating power struggle involving the two key groups within the military government finally turned deadly.

On one side stand the Sudanese military forces, which maintain general loyalty towards General al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Opposing him are the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a gathering of armed factions who follow the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir as an Arab counterinsurgency militia known as the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with massive human rights violations. Back in 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the RSF, using them to quell a fresh rebellion in 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 world’s worst displacement crisis, scattering more than 10 million people internally along with 4 million refugees into neighbouring countries, putting mounting pressure upon Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

According to witnesses, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and allied militias within Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers belonging to the Sudanese military, the allied Joint Forces plus additional armed factions that were previously aligned with the military. They are reportedly being held because they cannot afford extortion payments between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), based on survivor accounts who arrived in Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying remain imprisoned for several days, and in some cases released only after falling seriously ill.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed army soldiers running from El Fasher to enter Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, 28, a motorist originating from Sennar within central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed after being captured by three armed men mounted on camels near Garney.

“They planned to decapitate me with a blade,” he informs, showing his arm, that one combatant struck using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother had worked with me – and begged them not to kill me. We were 18 people 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 deceptive well employed by the RSF and associated militias in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he explains. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They killed 22 men there and removed the corpses 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 within the emergency department, killing at least eight. “We ran out via another entrance, yet they assaulted my head using a rifle,” he recounts.

In a video statement on Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, declared that any fighter or officer who had “violated the right of any person” would be held accountable.

Several people who got away El Fasher spent hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit before fleeing west during nighttime. 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 within Garney reportedly received {water mixed with flour|flour