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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been working as a healthcare worker for the past three years in the El Fasher South medical facility after the city fell taken over on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was busy treating patients, featuring one senior woman requiring a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“They killed six wounded soldiers plus civilian patients in their beds – among them female victims,” she states. “I don’t know what happened regarding my other patients. I was forced to flee as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and upper leg as RSF fighters took control of the closeby army headquarters. She ran from the urban area and traveled on foot for one day, injured and without food, to get to the settlement of Garney. “On the way, they confiscated my phone and currency,” she explains. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

More than 1,000 people – comprising women and children – walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila within North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

Tawila, approximately 34 miles westward away from El Fasher, is governed by by the SLA faction commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

Last Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – charged the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians following the urban center's takeover. The UN reported there were videos featuring numerous unarmed males being shot or lying dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Contextual Information

Hostilities commenced in Sudan's capital on 15 April 2023 when an intensifying power struggle involving the two key groups of the armed forces leadership ultimately became violent.

From one perspective stand the Sudanese military forces, which maintain general loyalty to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Against him are the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an assembly of militia groups which support the ex-warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with widespread atrocities. In 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the RSF, sending them to suppress a recent insurrection in southern Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history”, based on UN statements. It has produced the world’s worst displacement crisis, dispersing over 10 million individuals within the country and 4 million who have fled into neighbouring countries, putting mounting pressure upon Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

Per observer reports, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and allied militias in the Garney area, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from Sudan's armed forces, the collaborative forces plus additional armed factions that were previously aligned with the military. They are apparently detained since they cannot pay ransom demands ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), based on survivor accounts who arrived in Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying remain imprisoned for several days, and occasionally released only after developing critical health conditions.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized government troops fleeing El Fasher to come into Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

A man named Adam Yagoub, 28, a chauffeur from Sennar within central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed after being captured by three camel-riding militiamen near Garney.

“They intended to behead me with a blade,” he informs, showing his arm, which one militant assaulted with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Subsequently one identified me – his brother was my colleague – and pleaded with them to spare me. There were 18 of us who departed El Fasher collectively, but only eight made it to Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub states he observed 22 corpses near what he called a deceptive well utilized by RSF forces and partner armed groups between Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he explains. “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.”

Another nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility following Sunday's assault said RSF fighters entered using one doorway and commenced firing upon patients within the emergency department, murdering no less than eight. “We escaped through a different gate, however they struck my head using a rifle,” he recounts.

Via a recorded message this past Wednesday, the RSF commander, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, declared that any fighter or official who breached the rights of any civilian would be punished.

Many of those who escaped El Fasher spent hours concealing themselves near military artillery before fleeing west under cover of darkness. Previously displaced households from Abu Shouk camp in the city were forced to move 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