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Nawal Khalil had been serving as a healthcare worker over a three-year period within the South El Fasher hospital after the city fell taken over on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was occupied with patient care, among them an older female patient in need of a transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“They killed six wounded soldiers and civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she recounts. “I don’t know what happened regarding my other patients. I was forced to flee when they stormed the hospital.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and upper leg as RSF fighters took control of the adjacent military command center. She ran from the urban area and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, injured and without food, to reach the town of Garney. “Along the route, they seized my mobile and money,” she explains. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

Over a thousand individuals – including women and children – traveled on foot for two days to get to the settlement of Tawila within North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was seized following an 18-month blockade.

The town of Tawila, approximately 34 miles westward from El Fasher, is under the control of the SLA-AW group led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

Last Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – charged the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants following the urban center's takeover. The UN reported that visual evidence showed featuring numerous unarmed males who were shot or found dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Contextual Information

Hostilities commenced in Sudan's capital back on April 15, 2023 as a growing contest for power involving the two key groups of the armed forces leadership eventually resulted in fatalities.

Among the combatants stand the Sudanese military forces, which maintain general loyalty to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Opposing him exist the irregular troops of the RSF paramilitary group, an assembly of militia groups that obey the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with extensive brutalities. During 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the RSF, using them to quell a new uprising within South Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history”, according to UN officials. It has generated the globe's most severe displacement emergency, scattering more than 10 million people within the country plus 4 million who escaped to adjacent nations, generating growing stress upon Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Per observer reports, thousands more civilians stay confined by RSF forces and allied militias in Garney, southwest from 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. Reports indicate they're imprisoned since they cannot pay extortion payments ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), according to survivors who reached Tawila. Those unable to pay have been held for multiple days, and in some cases released only after developing critical health conditions.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized army soldiers running from El Fasher to access Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a chauffeur from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, barely avoided execution subsequent to his seizure by three militiamen on camels near Garney.

“They intended to behead me with a blade,” he informs, exhibiting his limb, which one militant assaulted using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother was my colleague – and urged them not to execute me. There were 18 of us who departed El Fasher collectively, but only eight made it to Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub states he saw 22 bodies close to what he described as a deceptive well utilized by RSF forces and associated militias in the area connecting 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 murdered 22 males at that location and carried the bodies off to hide them.”

A different medical worker who fled the El Fasher South medical facility after the attack on Sunday reported RSF militiamen penetrated using one doorway and opened fire on patients within the emergency department, murdering no less than eight. “We ran out via another entrance, yet they assaulted my head with a rifle,” he states.

Through a video declaration on Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Dagalo, called Hemedti, said that any soldier or official who breached the rights of any civilian would be punished.

Many of those who escaped El Fasher utilized hours taking cover close to army artillery positions prior to escaping westward under cover of darkness. Already displaced families 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 apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour