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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a medical volunteer for the past three years at El Fasher South hospital when the city was seized last Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was busy treating patients, among them an older female patient requiring a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“Six injured soldiers were killed along with civilians in their beds – including some women,” she says. “I don’t know what happened for my remaining patients. I had to run when they stormed the hospital.”

Khalil, 27, was shot in the 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, hurt and lacking sustenance, to get to the settlement of Garney. “On the way, they seized my mobile and money,” she says. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – comprising women and children – walked for two days to get to the settlement of Tawila within North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

This settlement, around 55 kilometers to the west away from El Fasher, is under the control by the SLA faction led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

On Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – blamed the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. The UN reported there were videos featuring numerous unarmed males being shot or lying dead, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Historical Background

Fighting broke out in Khartoum back on April 15, 2023 when an intensifying power struggle between the two main factions of the armed forces leadership eventually resulted in fatalities.

From one perspective are the Sudanese armed forces, which maintain general loyalty to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Opposing him exist the irregular troops belonging to the RSF, an assembly of militia groups who follow the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab counterinsurgency militia known as the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with massive human rights violations. Back in 2013, Bashir transformed the group into the RSF, sending them to suppress a recent insurrection in South Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in recent history”, as per UN representatives. It has created the world’s worst displacement crisis, forcing more than 10 million persons within the country and 4 million who have fled to adjacent nations, generating growing stress upon Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Based on eyewitness accounts, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and partner militias within Garney, in the southwestern direction from 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 since they cannot pay ransom requests of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. Those unable to pay have been held for multiple days, and occasionally freed only when developing critical health conditions.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed army soldiers running from El Fasher to access Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a motorist originating from Sennar within central Sudan, closely avoided death following his capture by three camel-riding militiamen near Garney.

“They intended to behead me with a knife,” he tells, displaying 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. Our group contained 18 individuals who left El Fasher together, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub says he witnessed 22 deceased individuals close to what he described as a “fake well” used by the RSF and partner armed groups in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he says. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They murdered 22 males at that location and took the bodies away to obscure them.”

An additional nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility subsequent to Sunday's offensive reported RSF militiamen penetrated through one gate and commenced firing upon patients in the ER section, causing at least eight fatalities. “We escaped through a different gate, however they struck my head using a rifle,” he states.

Through a video declaration last Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or officer who had “violated the right of any person” would be held accountable.

Numerous individuals who fled El Fasher spent hours concealing themselves near military artillery prior to escaping westward under cover of darkness. Previously displaced households from Abu Shouk camp in the city had to displace once more, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before eventually heading for Tawila.

People apprehended by RSF forces in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour