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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been serving as a medical volunteer over a three-year period in the El Fasher South medical facility after the city fell seized last Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was actively caring for the sick, among them an older female patient in need of a transfusion, when the attack began.

“Six injured soldiers were killed and civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she says. “I don’t know what happened regarding my other patients. I needed to escape as they invaded the hospital.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and her thigh during the RSF's seizure of the nearby military headquarters. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, wounded and without nourishment, to reach the town of Garney. “On the way, they seized my mobile and currency,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – including women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to get to the settlement of Tawila located in northern Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was seized following an 18-month blockade.

This settlement, around 55 kilometers to the west from El Fasher, remains under the authority by the SLA faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

This past Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – accused the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants following the urban center's takeover. United Nations officials stated there were videos showing “dozens of unarmed men who were shot or found dead, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Historical Background

Fighting broke out within Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as an escalating power struggle involving the two key groups of the military regime finally turned deadly.

On one side stand the Sudanese military forces, who remain broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Against him are the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a collection of militias which support the ex-warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab anti-rebellion militia named the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with widespread atrocities. 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 a terrible humanitarian disaster in modern times, as per UN representatives. It has generated the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, forcing more than 10 million persons inside the nation along with 4 million refugees into neighbouring countries, generating growing stress upon Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Per observer reports, thousands more civilians continue to be held by the RSF and partner militias within Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Several are previous army members from Sudan's armed forces, the collaborative forces and other armed groups that had been fighting alongside the army. They are apparently detained as they lack funds for ransom requests between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), according to survivors who arrived in Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been held for multiple days, and occasionally released only after developing critical health conditions.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized government troops fleeing El Fasher to access Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

A man named Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a motorist originating from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, narrowly escaped being killed following his capture by three camel-riding militiamen in the Garney vicinity.

“They intended to behead me with a knife,” he tells, exhibiting his limb, which one of the fighters hit with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Then one of them recognised me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. We were 18 people who left El Fasher together, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub states he saw 22 bodies close to what he described as a fraudulent water source used by the RSF and allied militias between Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he explains. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and upon arriving there, the armed groups lie in wait. They killed 22 men there and took the bodies away to hide them.”

A different medical worker who ran from South El Fasher hospital after the attack on Sunday stated RSF combatants came in through one gate and began shooting at patients within the emergency department, killing at least eight. “We fled through another gate, but they hit me on the head with a rifle,” he states.

Via a recorded message last Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Dagalo, known as Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or officer who had “violated the right of any individual would face consequences.

Many of those who escaped El Fasher spent hours concealing themselves near military artillery before running west under cover of darkness. Families already uprooted from the city’s Abu Shouk camp were forced to move again, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

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