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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been working as a nurse for the past three years at El Fasher South hospital after the city fell taken over on Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was busy treating patients, including an elderly woman who needed a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“Six injured soldiers were killed plus civilian patients in their beds – including some women,” she recounts. “I don’t know what happened to my other patients. I had to run after they raided the medical facility.”

Khalil, aged 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and her thigh while RSF combatants gained control of the nearby military headquarters. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, wounded and without nourishment, to reach the town of Garney. “On the way, they took my phone and currency,” she describes. “I ended up with nothing.”

More than 1,000 people – comprising women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to arrive at Tawila town in North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which was captured after an 18-month siege.

This settlement, around 55 kilometers to the west from El Fasher, remains under the authority by the SLA faction commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

This past Tuesday, the Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – blamed the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants following the urban center's takeover. The UN reported that footage existed depicting dozens of weaponless men either being shot or deceased, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Historical Background

Conflict erupted in Khartoum back on April 15, 2023 when an intensifying power struggle among the two primary factions of the armed forces leadership eventually resulted in fatalities.

From one perspective stand the Sudanese military forces, that stay mostly faithful towards General al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Opposing him exist the irregular troops of the RSF paramilitary group, an assembly of militia groups who follow the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir himself as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force known as the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with widespread atrocities. During 2013, Bashir converted the organization to become the RSF, sending them to suppress a fresh rebellion in southern Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history”, based on UN statements. It has created the world’s worst displacement crisis, dispersing over 10 million individuals internally and 4 million who have fled to adjacent nations, putting mounting pressure upon Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Per observer reports, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and associated armed groups within Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from Sudan's armed forces, the Joint Forces and other armed groups that were previously aligned with the military. Reports indicate they're imprisoned as they lack funds for ransom requests between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), according to survivors who reached Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been detained for days, and occasionally released only after developing critical health conditions.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized government troops fleeing El Fasher to enter Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a driver from Sennar in central Sudan, closely avoided death following his capture by three camel-riding militiamen in the Garney vicinity.

“They planned to decapitate me with a knife,” he tells, exhibiting his limb, which one of the fighters hit with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Subsequently one identified me – his brother had worked with me – and urged them not to execute me. There were 18 of us who exited El Fasher as a group, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub states he witnessed 22 deceased individuals in proximity to what he termed a deceptive well employed by the RSF and associated militias in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he says. “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 obscure them.”

An additional nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility subsequent to Sunday's offensive reported RSF militiamen penetrated via one entrance and began shooting at patients in the ER section, killing at least eight. “We escaped through a different gate, yet they assaulted my head with a rifle,” he states.

Via a recorded message last Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Dagalo, called Hemedti, said that any soldier or officer who had “violated the right of any individual would face consequences.

Numerous individuals who fled from El Fasher passed hours concealing themselves near military artillery prior to escaping westward under cover of darkness. Already displaced families originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement were compelled to relocate again, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

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