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Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a healthcare worker for three years in the El Fasher South medical facility when the city was seized last Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was occupied with patient care, among them an older female patient in need of a transfusion, when the attack began.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel along with civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she recounts. “The outcome remains unknown to my other patients. I needed to escape when they stormed the hospital.”

Khalil, 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and thigh while RSF combatants gained control of the nearby military headquarters. She escaped from the city and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, injured and without food, to reach the town of Garney. “Along the route, they took my phone and cash,” 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 after fleeing El Fasher, which was captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

Tawila, approximately 34 miles westward away from El Fasher, is governed by of the SLA-AW group commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

Last Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – charged the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. The UN said that visual evidence showed depicting dozens of weaponless men either being shot or deceased, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Historical Background

Fighting broke out in Sudan's capital on 15 April 2023 as a growing contest for power among the two primary factions of the military regime eventually resulted in fatalities.

On one side stand the Sudanese military forces, which maintain general loyalty towards General al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Opposing him are the paramilitaries belonging to the RSF, a collection of militias that obey the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab anti-rebellion militia known as the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with extensive brutalities. In 2013, Bashir transformed the group to become the RSF, sending them to suppress a fresh rebellion in southern Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in modern times, according to UN officials. It has created the world’s worst displacement crisis, dispersing over 10 million individuals within the country plus 4 million who escaped to adjacent nations, generating growing stress upon Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

According to witnesses, thousands more civilians remain trapped by the RSF and allied militias in the Garney area, south-west of El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from Sudan's armed forces, the allied Joint Forces and other armed groups that were previously aligned with the military. Reports indicate they're imprisoned since they cannot pay ransom requests of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), per those who escaped who reached Tawila. Those unable to pay have been held for multiple days, and in some cases freed only when becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted military personnel escaping El Fasher to come into Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

The individual Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a motorist originating from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, closely avoided death subsequent to his seizure by three militiamen on camels close to Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a knife,” he informs, showing his arm, which one militant assaulted using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Subsequently one identified me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and begged them not to kill me. Our group contained 18 individuals who exited El Fasher as a group, but only eight made it to Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub reports he witnessed 22 deceased individuals in proximity to what he termed a fraudulent water source utilized by RSF forces and associated militias between Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he comments. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they get to it, the militias are waiting. They killed 22 men there and carried the bodies off to conceal them.”

Another nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility after the attack on Sunday stated RSF combatants came in via one entrance and commenced firing upon patients in the ER section, murdering no less than eight. “We fled through another gate, but they hit me on the head with a firearm,” he states.

Through a video declaration on Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General 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 hiding near the army’s artillery unit prior to escaping westward under darkness's protection. Families already uprooted originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement had to displace once more, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before eventually heading for Tawila.

People apprehended by RSF forces in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour