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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been working as a healthcare worker over a three-year period at El Fasher South hospital when the city was captured on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was occupied with patient care, including an elderly woman requiring a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“They killed six wounded soldiers along with civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she says. “The outcome remains unknown for my remaining patients. I was forced to flee as they invaded the hospital.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and thigh as RSF fighters took control of the nearby military headquarters. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, injured and without food, to arrive at Garney town. “During the journey, they seized my mobile and currency,” she describes. “I ended up with nothing.”

More than 1,000 people – featuring females and minors – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to get to the settlement of Tawila located in northern Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was seized after an 18-month siege.

Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the west away from El Fasher, remains under the authority of the SLA-AW group commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

This past Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – accused the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants following the urban center's takeover. The UN said there were videos featuring numerous unarmed males either being shot or deceased, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Historical Background

Fighting broke out in Sudan's capital back on April 15, 2023 as a growing contest for power involving the two key groups of the military regime eventually resulted in fatalities.

On one side exist the official Sudanese army, which maintain general loyalty towards General al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Against him stand the paramilitary forces of the RSF paramilitary group, an assembly of militia groups who follow the former warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the previous authoritarian leader Bashir's regime as an Arab anti-rebellion militia called the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with extensive brutalities. Back in 2013, Bashir converted the organization to become the RSF, deploying them to crush a new uprising in southern Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in recent history”, as per UN representatives. It has created the world’s worst displacement crisis, forcing more than 10 million persons internally and 4 million who have fled into neighbouring countries, generating growing stress upon Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

According to witnesses, numerous more non-combatants remain trapped by the RSF and allied militias within Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Several are previous army members belonging to the Sudanese military, the Joint Forces and other armed groups which had been combatting together with the army. They are apparently detained because they cannot afford ransom requests of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who reached Tawila. Those unable to pay have been held for multiple days, and in some cases released only after becoming gravely ill.

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

A man named Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a chauffeur from Sennar within central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed following his capture by three militiamen on camels near Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a blade,” he informs, showing his arm, that one combatant struck using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Subsequently one identified me – his brother had worked with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. We were 18 people who exited El Fasher as a group, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub says he witnessed 22 deceased individuals near what he called a fraudulent water source used by the RSF and partner armed groups between Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he comments. “Persons journey daily without hydration, 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.”

Another nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital after the attack on Sunday said RSF fighters entered through one gate and commenced firing upon patients in the ER section, killing at least eight. “We fled through another gate, however they struck my head with a rifle,” he recounts.

Via a recorded message this past Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or officer who had “violated the right of any individual would face consequences.

Numerous individuals who fled El Fasher utilized hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit before running west during nighttime. Previously displaced households from the city’s Abu Shouk camp were compelled to relocate again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before finally moving toward Tawila.

Those captured by the RSF in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour