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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been serving as a nurse for the past three years in the El Fasher South medical facility when the city was seized last Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was occupied with patient care, including an elderly woman requiring a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel along with civilians in their beds – including some women,” she states. “I am unaware of the fate to my other patients. I needed to escape as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and thigh during the RSF's seizure of the closeby army headquarters. She escaped from the city and traveled on foot for one day, injured and without food, to get to the settlement of Garney. “Along the route, they took my phone and money,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – featuring females and minors – walked for two days to arrive at Tawila town located in northern Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which fell under control after an 18-month siege.

Tawila, about 34 miles (55km) west from El Fasher, is governed by by the SLA faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

This past Tuesday, the Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – charged the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. United Nations officials stated that visual evidence showed featuring numerous unarmed males being shot or lying dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Contextual Information

Conflict erupted in Sudan's capital back on April 15, 2023 as a growing contest for power between the two main factions of the armed forces leadership eventually resulted in fatalities.

On one side are the Sudanese armed forces, which maintain general loyalty towards General al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Against him stand the paramilitary forces of the RSF paramilitary group, a collection of militias who follow the former warlord General Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the previous authoritarian leader Bashir's regime as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force named the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with massive human rights violations. During 2013, Bashir converted the organization to become the RSF, using them to quell a recent insurrection in southern Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in contemporary history, according to UN officials. It has produced 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 on Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Per observer reports, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and allied militias within Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Several are previous army members from Sudan's armed forces, the collaborative forces plus additional armed factions that had been fighting alongside the army. They are apparently detained because they cannot afford extortion payments of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. People who cannot afford payment remain imprisoned for several days, and occasionally freed only when falling seriously ill.

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

Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a motorist originating from Sennar in central Sudan, barely avoided execution subsequent to his seizure by three camel-riding militiamen close to Garney.

“They intended to behead me with a knife,” he recounts, exhibiting his limb, which one of the fighters hit with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Subsequently one identified me – his brother was my colleague – and urged them not to execute me. Our group contained 18 individuals who exited El Fasher as a group, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub says he witnessed 22 deceased individuals near what he called a deceptive well employed by the RSF and associated militias along the Garney-Tawila route. “It’s a trap,” he explains. “People walk all day without water, and upon arriving there, the militias are waiting. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and removed the corpses to hide them.”

A different medical worker who fled the El Fasher South medical facility after the attack on Sunday reported RSF militiamen penetrated through one gate and opened fire on patients in the emergency ward, causing at least eight fatalities. “We ran out via another entrance, yet they assaulted my head with a firearm,” he says.

Via a recorded message this past Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, declared that any fighter or official who breached the rights of any individual would face consequences.

Many of those who escaped El Fasher spent hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit prior to escaping westward under darkness's protection. Previously displaced households from the city’s Abu Shouk camp were compelled to relocate again, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before eventually heading for Tawila.

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