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Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a nurse for the past three years at El Fasher South hospital when the city was taken over on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was busy treating patients, among them an older female patient in need of a transfusion, when the attack began.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel along with civilians in their beds – including some women,” she states. “I am unaware of the fate for my remaining patients. I was forced to flee when they stormed the hospital.”

Khalil, 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and upper leg as RSF fighters took control of the nearby military headquarters. She fled the city and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, wounded and without nourishment, to reach the town of Garney. “During the journey, they seized my mobile and money,” she says. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

More than 1,000 people – including women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to arrive at Tawila town in North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which fell under control after an 18-month siege.

The town of Tawila, approximately 34 miles westward from El Fasher, is under the control by the SLA faction commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

Last Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – accused the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. United Nations officials stated that visual evidence showed depicting dozens of weaponless men who were shot or found dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Historical Background

Hostilities commenced in Sudan's capital on 15 April 2023 as a growing contest for power involving the two key groups within the military government finally turned deadly.

From one perspective stand the Sudanese military forces, which maintain general loyalty to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Challenging him stand the paramilitary forces of the RSF paramilitary group, a collection of militias which support the ex-warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir as an Arab anti-rebellion militia known as the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with extensive brutalities. In 2013, Bashir transformed the group into the Rapid Support Forces, sending them to suppress a recent insurrection in southern Darfur.

The fighting has thrown Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in recent history”, as per UN representatives. It has generated the world’s worst displacement crisis, dispersing over 10 million individuals inside the nation along with 4 million refugees into neighbouring countries, creating increasing strain upon Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Per observer reports, numerous more non-combatants remain trapped by the RSF and associated armed groups within 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 (approximately £6,000-£12,000), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been detained for days, and sometimes released only after falling seriously ill.

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

Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a chauffeur from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, barely avoided execution after being captured by three armed men mounted on camels in the Garney vicinity.

“They planned to decapitate me using a knife,” he recounts, showing his arm, that one combatant struck using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother had worked with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. There were 18 of us who departed El Fasher collectively, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies close to what he described as a “fake well” utilized by RSF forces and associated militias along the Garney-Tawila route. “It’s a trap,” he comments. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and when they get to it, the militias are waiting. They murdered 22 males at that location and removed the corpses to obscure them.”

A different medical worker who ran from South El Fasher hospital following Sunday's assault reported RSF militiamen penetrated through one gate and commenced firing upon patients in the emergency ward, killing at least eight. “We fled through another gate, yet they assaulted my head using a rifle,” he recounts.

Via a recorded message this past Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Dagalo, known as Hemedti, declared that any fighter or officer who had “violated the right of any individual would face consequences.

Several people who got away El Fasher spent hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit before running west during nighttime. Previously displaced households originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement were compelled to relocate again, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before finally moving toward Tawila.

Individuals seized by the RSF within Garney reportedly received {water mixed with flour|flour