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Nawal Khalil had been serving as a healthcare worker over a three-year period at El Fasher South hospital when the city was captured on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was busy treating patients, including an elderly woman requiring a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“They killed six wounded soldiers along with civilians in their beds – including some women,” she recounts. “I am unaware of the fate to my other patients. I was forced to flee after they raided the medical facility.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and thigh during the RSF's seizure of the nearby military headquarters. She fled the city and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, wounded and without nourishment, to arrive at Garney town. “Along the route, they seized my mobile and currency,” she says. “I was left with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – comprising women and children – walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila located in northern Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was seized after an 18-month siege.

This settlement, about 34 miles (55km) west of El Fasher, is governed by by the SLA faction led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

Last Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – blamed the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. The UN reported that footage existed featuring numerous unarmed males either being shot or deceased, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Background Context

Conflict erupted in Khartoum during April of 2023 as an escalating power struggle between the two main factions of the military regime eventually resulted in fatalities.

On one side exist the official Sudanese army, which maintain general loyalty to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Opposing him exist the irregular troops belonging to the RSF, an assembly of militia groups that obey the former warlord General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir himself as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with widespread atrocities. Back in 2013, Bashir reformed the faction into the Rapid Support Forces, deploying them to crush a new uprising in southern Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in contemporary history, according to UN officials. It has created the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, scattering more than 10 million people inside the nation plus 4 million who escaped to adjacent nations, putting mounting pressure upon Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Per observer reports, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and associated armed groups in the Garney area, southwest from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from the Sudanese army, the allied Joint Forces and other armed groups that had been fighting alongside the army. They are reportedly being held since they cannot pay ransom requests between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), based on survivor accounts who made it to Tawila. Those unable to pay remain imprisoned for several days, and occasionally released only after falling seriously ill.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized army soldiers running from El Fasher to access Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a chauffeur from Sennar within central Sudan, closely avoided death after being captured by three militiamen on camels close to Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a blade,” he recounts, exhibiting his limb, which one of the fighters hit with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Subsequently one identified me – his brother had worked with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. Our group contained 18 individuals who departed El Fasher collectively, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub says he observed 22 corpses close to what he described as a fraudulent water source utilized by RSF forces and associated militias between Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he explains. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and took the bodies away to hide them.”

An additional nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital following Sunday's assault stated RSF combatants came in via one entrance and began shooting at patients in the emergency ward, killing at least eight. “We fled through another gate, however they struck my head with a firearm,” he recounts.

Via a recorded message on Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, declared that any fighter or officer who had “violated the right of any individual would face consequences.

Numerous individuals who fled from El Fasher passed hours concealing themselves near military artillery before running west under cover of darkness. Families already uprooted from Abu Shouk camp in the city were compelled to relocate again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before eventually heading for Tawila.

Individuals seized by the RSF in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour