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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been working as a nurse for three years at El Fasher South hospital as the city became taken over on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was busy treating patients, including an elderly woman requiring a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel along with civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she recounts. “The outcome remains unknown for my remaining patients. I needed to escape after they raided the medical facility.”

Khalil, aged 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and her thigh while RSF combatants gained control of the nearby military headquarters. She escaped from the city and walked for a day, wounded and without nourishment, to reach the town of Garney. “Along the route, they took my phone and cash,” she explains. “I was left with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – comprising women and children – walked for two days to arrive at Tawila town in North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was captured after an 18-month siege.

The town of Tawila, about 34 miles (55km) west from El Fasher, is governed by by the SLA faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

This past Tuesday, the Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – blamed the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants following the urban center's takeover. The UN reported that footage existed depicting dozens of weaponless men who were shot or found dead, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Background Context

Fighting broke out in Sudan's capital during April of 2023 when an intensifying power struggle between the two main factions of the military regime finally turned deadly.

Among the combatants are the Sudanese armed forces, which maintain general loyalty towards General al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Opposing him stand the paramilitary forces of the RSF paramilitary group, a collection of militias which support the ex-warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir as an Arab anti-rebellion militia named the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with widespread atrocities. During 2013, Bashir reformed the faction 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, based on UN statements. It has produced the world’s worst displacement crisis, scattering more than 10 million people within the country along with 4 million refugees into neighbouring countries, generating growing stress on both Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

According to witnesses, thousands more civilians stay confined by RSF forces and partner militias in Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from the Sudanese army, the allied Joint Forces and other militant organizations that were previously aligned with the military. They are reportedly being held as they lack funds for extortion payments between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), according to survivors who reached Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been held for multiple days, and sometimes freed only when becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed army soldiers running from El Fasher to come into Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a motorist originating from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, barely avoided execution subsequent to his seizure by three camel-riding militiamen close to Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a blade,” he recounts, exhibiting his limb, which one militant assaulted with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother was my colleague – and urged them not to execute me. Our group contained 18 individuals who departed El Fasher collectively, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies close to what he described as a deceptive well used by the RSF and associated militias along the Garney-Tawila route. “This is an ambush,” he says. “People walk all day without water, and when they get to it, the armed groups lie in wait. They murdered 22 males at that location and took the bodies away to hide them.”

A different medical worker who ran from South El Fasher hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive reported RSF militiamen penetrated using one doorway and began shooting at patients in the ER section, murdering no less than eight. “We escaped through a different gate, however they struck my head using a rifle,” he states.

Through a video declaration last Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or officer who had “violated the right of any individual would face consequences.

Several people who got away from El Fasher passed hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit before running west under cover of darkness. Families already uprooted from the city’s Abu Shouk camp were forced to move again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before finally moving toward Tawila.

People apprehended by RSF forces within Garney reportedly received {water mixed with flour|flour