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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a nurse over a three-year period in the El Fasher South medical facility as the city became seized last Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was actively caring for the sick, among them an older female patient who needed a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“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 had to run as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and her thigh while RSF combatants gained control of the closeby army headquarters. She ran from the urban area and walked for a day, injured and without food, to arrive at Garney town. “Along the route, they seized my mobile and currency,” she says. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – 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 captured following an 18-month blockade.

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

This past Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – charged the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. United Nations officials stated that footage existed featuring numerous unarmed males who were shot or found dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Contextual Information

Fighting broke out in Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as a growing contest for power involving the two key groups of the armed forces leadership ultimately became violent.

On one side exist the official Sudanese army, which maintain general loyalty to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Challenging him are the paramilitaries belonging to the RSF, a gathering of armed factions who follow the former warlord General Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab anti-rebellion militia known as the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with massive human rights violations. During 2013, Bashir transformed the group into the RSF, deploying them to crush a new uprising within South Darfur.

The fighting has thrown Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in modern times, according to UN officials. It has created the globe's most severe displacement emergency, scattering more than 10 million people internally plus 4 million who escaped into neighbouring countries, putting mounting pressure on Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Per observer reports, thousands more civilians stay confined by RSF forces and associated armed groups in the Garney area, south-west of El Fasher. Many are former soldiers belonging to the Sudanese military, the collaborative forces plus additional armed factions that had been fighting alongside the army. They are apparently detained since they cannot pay ransom requests between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), according to survivors who reached Tawila. Those unable to pay remain imprisoned for several days, and occasionally let go solely after falling seriously ill.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized military personnel escaping El Fasher to come into Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, 28, a motorist originating from Sennar within central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed subsequent to his seizure by three camel-riding militiamen in the Garney vicinity.

“They planned to decapitate me with a blade,” he recounts, showing his arm, which one of the fighters hit with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Subsequently one identified me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and begged them not to kill me. There were 18 of us who exited El Fasher as a group, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub states he observed 22 corpses near what he called a deceptive well utilized by RSF forces and partner armed groups in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he comments. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and upon arriving there, the armed groups lie in wait. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and took the bodies away to hide them.”

A different medical worker who fled the El Fasher South medical facility following Sunday's assault said RSF fighters entered via one entrance and opened fire on patients in the ER section, murdering no less than eight. “We fled through another gate, but they hit me on the head with a rifle,” he says.

In a video statement this past Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Dagalo, known as Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or official who breached the rights of any person” would be held accountable.

Several people who got away from El Fasher passed hours concealing themselves near military artillery prior to escaping westward during nighttime. Already displaced families from the city’s Abu Shouk camp were forced to move again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

People apprehended by RSF forces within Garney reportedly received {water mixed with flour|flour