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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been serving as a nurse for the past three years at El Fasher South hospital after the city fell seized last Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was occupied with patient care, featuring one senior woman requiring a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“Six injured soldiers were killed and civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she states. “I don’t know what happened regarding my other patients. I had to run after they raided the medical facility.”

Khalil, aged 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and upper leg during the RSF's seizure of the adjacent military command center. She ran from the urban area and walked for a day, wounded and without nourishment, to get to the settlement of Garney. “On the way, they confiscated my phone and money,” she says. “I was left with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – including women and children – walked for two days to arrive at Tawila town within North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which was captured following an 18-month blockade.

Tawila, approximately 34 miles westward from El Fasher, remains under the authority of the SLA-AW group commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

Last Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – charged the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. The UN reported that footage existed depicting dozens of weaponless men who were shot or found dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Historical Background

Conflict erupted in Sudan's capital during April of 2023 when an intensifying power struggle between the two main factions within the military government finally turned deadly.

From one perspective are the Sudanese armed forces, which maintain general loyalty to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Opposing him are the paramilitaries of the RSF paramilitary group, a collection of militias which support the ex-warlord General Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir as an Arab counterinsurgency militia known as the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with extensive brutalities. In 2013, Bashir reformed the faction into the Rapid Support Forces, deploying them to crush a new uprising in southern Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history”, according to UN officials. It has created the globe's most severe displacement emergency, forcing more than 10 million persons internally and 4 million who have fled to bordering states, generating growing stress upon Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

Per observer reports, many additional civilians continue to be held by the RSF and partner militias within Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel belonging to the Sudanese military, the collaborative forces and other militant organizations that had been fighting alongside the army. Reports indicate they're imprisoned since they cannot pay ransom demands of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), based on survivor accounts who arrived in Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been detained for days, and sometimes released only after falling seriously ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted military personnel escaping El Fasher to enter Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

A man named 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 in the Garney vicinity.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a knife,” he informs, showing his arm, which one of the fighters hit using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Subsequently one identified me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. We were 18 people who left El Fasher together, but only eight made it to Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub reports he observed 22 corpses close to what he described as a “fake well” employed by the RSF and allied militias between Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he comments. “People walk all day without water, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They murdered 22 males at that location and took the bodies away to obscure them.”

An additional nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive reported RSF militiamen penetrated through one gate and commenced firing upon patients within the emergency department, causing at least eight fatalities. “We ran out via another entrance, yet they assaulted my 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 civilian would be punished.

Numerous individuals who fled El Fasher spent hours concealing themselves near military artillery before fleeing west under cover of darkness. Families already uprooted originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement were forced to move again, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before finally moving toward Tawila.

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