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Nawal Khalil had been serving as a medical volunteer over a three-year period at El Fasher South hospital after the city fell captured on Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was actively caring for the sick, including an elderly woman in need of a transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel and civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she recounts. “I don’t know what happened regarding my other patients. I was forced to flee as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and her thigh as RSF fighters took control of the nearby military headquarters. She escaped from the city and walked for a day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to arrive at Garney town. “On the way, they took my phone and cash,” she says. “I was left with nothing.”

More than 1,000 people – comprising women and children – walked for two days to get to the settlement of Tawila located in northern Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was seized after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

This settlement, about 34 miles (55km) west of El Fasher, is under the control of the Sudan Liberation Army 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 for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants since the fall of the city. United Nations officials stated there were videos showing “dozens of unarmed men either being shot or deceased, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Historical Background

Fighting broke out in Sudan's capital on 15 April 2023 when an intensifying power struggle involving the two key groups of the armed forces leadership eventually resulted in fatalities.

From one perspective are the Sudanese armed forces, who remain broadly loyal towards General al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Opposing him are the paramilitaries of the RSF paramilitary group, an assembly of militia groups which support the ex-warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir as an Arab anti-rebellion militia named the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with extensive brutalities. In 2013, Bashir reformed the faction into the Rapid Support Forces, sending them to suppress a fresh rebellion in South Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in recent history”, based on UN statements. It has created the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, forcing more than 10 million persons within the country along with 4 million refugees into neighbouring countries, putting mounting pressure upon Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

According to witnesses, thousands more civilians continue to be held by the RSF and associated armed groups in the Garney area, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Several are previous army members belonging to the Sudanese military, the allied Joint Forces plus additional armed factions which had been combatting together with the army. They are apparently detained because they cannot afford extortion payments ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been detained for days, and in some cases let go solely after falling seriously ill.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed army soldiers running from El Fasher to access Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a chauffeur from Sennar in central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed after being captured by three camel-riding militiamen near Garney.

“They planned to decapitate me using a knife,” he recounts, displaying his arm, that one combatant struck 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. We were 18 people who left El Fasher together, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub reports he observed 22 corpses close to what he described as a deceptive well used by the RSF and associated militias along the Garney-Tawila route. “This is an ambush,” he comments. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and when they reach it, the militias are waiting. They murdered 22 males at that location and removed the corpses to obscure them.”

Another nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital after the attack on Sunday stated RSF combatants came in via one entrance and commenced firing upon patients in the emergency ward, causing at least eight fatalities. “We escaped through a different gate, but they hit me on the head with a firearm,” he says.

In a video statement last Wednesday, the head of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, said that any soldier or officer who had “violated the right of any individual would face consequences.

Many of those who escaped from El Fasher passed hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit before fleeing west during nighttime. Families already uprooted originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement were forced to move again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before finally moving toward Tawila.

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