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Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a healthcare worker for three years at El Fasher South hospital after the city fell captured on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was occupied with patient care, featuring one senior woman requiring a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“Six injured soldiers were killed along with civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she states. “I don’t know what happened for my remaining patients. I was forced to flee after they raided the medical facility.”

Khalil, 27, was shot in the right foot and upper leg during the RSF's seizure of the adjacent military command center. She fled the city and walked for a day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to arrive at Garney town. “On the way, they seized my mobile and currency,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – featuring females and minors – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to reach the town of Tawila within North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was captured after an 18-month siege.

Tawila, about 34 miles (55km) west from El Fasher, is under the control by the SLA faction led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

Last Tuesday, the 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 that footage existed depicting dozens of weaponless men being shot or lying dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Background Context

Conflict erupted within Khartoum during April of 2023 when an intensifying power struggle among the two primary factions of the military regime finally turned deadly.

From one perspective are the Sudanese armed forces, which maintain general loyalty to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Against him stand the paramilitary forces of the RSF paramilitary group, an assembly of militia groups which support the ex-warlord General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir himself as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force named the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with massive human rights violations. Back in 2013, Bashir reformed the faction into the RSF, sending them to suppress a fresh rebellion in South Darfur.

The fighting has thrown Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in modern times, according to UN officials. It has generated the world’s worst displacement crisis, dispersing over 10 million individuals internally plus 4 million who escaped to adjacent nations, putting mounting pressure upon Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Based on eyewitness accounts, numerous more non-combatants continue to be held by the RSF and associated armed groups in the Garney area, southwest from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from Sudan's armed forces, the collaborative forces plus additional armed factions that were previously aligned with the military. Reports indicate they're imprisoned because they cannot afford ransom demands between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), based on survivor accounts who arrived in Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying remain imprisoned for several days, and occasionally freed only when becoming gravely ill.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized army soldiers running from El Fasher to enter Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

A man named Adam Yagoub, 28, a driver from Sennar in central Sudan, barely avoided execution subsequent to his seizure by three militiamen on camels close to Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off using a knife,” he tells, displaying his arm, which one militant assaulted using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Subsequently one identified me – his brother was my colleague – and begged them not to kill me. There were 18 of us who left El Fasher together, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies near what he called a fraudulent water source utilized by RSF forces and partner armed groups between Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he explains. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and when they reach it, the militias are waiting. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and took the bodies away to obscure them.”

An additional nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital after the attack on Sunday reported RSF militiamen penetrated using one doorway and opened fire on patients within the emergency department, causing at least eight fatalities. “We escaped through a different gate, but they hit me on the head with a rifle,” he recounts.

Through a video declaration this past Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, declared that any fighter or officer who had “violated the right of any individual would face consequences.

Several people who got away from El Fasher passed hours concealing themselves near military artillery before running west under darkness's protection. Already displaced families from Abu Shouk camp in the city were compelled to relocate again, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before finally moving toward Tawila.

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