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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been working as a medical volunteer for three years in the El Fasher South medical facility when the city was seized last 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.

“Six injured soldiers were killed plus civilian patients in their beds – among them female victims,” she states. “I don’t know what happened regarding my other patients. I had to run when they stormed the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and her thigh as RSF fighters took control of the closeby army headquarters. She escaped from the city and walked for a day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to reach the town of Garney. “During the journey, they seized my mobile and currency,” she says. “I ended up with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – comprising women and children – traveled on foot for two days to reach the town of Tawila in North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which was captured after an 18-month siege.

The town of Tawila, about 34 miles (55km) west away from El Fasher, remains under the authority of the Sudan Liberation Army faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

This past Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – charged the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. The UN said there were videos depicting dozens of weaponless men being shot or lying dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Historical Background

Hostilities commenced in Khartoum on 15 April 2023 when an intensifying power struggle involving the two key groups of the military regime eventually resulted in fatalities.

On one side exist the official Sudanese army, who remain broadly loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Opposing him exist the irregular troops belonging to the RSF, an assembly of militia groups that obey the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir as an Arab counterinsurgency militia named the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with extensive brutalities. Back in 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the Rapid Support Forces, using them to quell a fresh rebellion within South Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in contemporary history, as per UN representatives. It has produced the globe's most severe displacement emergency, forcing more than 10 million persons within the country plus 4 million who escaped into neighbouring countries, creating increasing strain on Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

Per observer reports, numerous more non-combatants remain trapped by the RSF and allied militias in Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel belonging to the Sudanese military, the allied Joint Forces plus additional armed factions that had been fighting alongside the army. They are apparently detained since they cannot pay ransom demands between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), according to survivors who made it to Tawila. Those unable to pay have been detained for days, and occasionally released only after becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted army soldiers running from El Fasher to enter Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

A man named Adam Yagoub, 28, a chauffeur from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, narrowly escaped being killed following his capture by three camel-riding militiamen close to Garney.

“They intended to behead me with a blade,” he informs, showing his arm, which one of the fighters hit with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother had worked with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. There were 18 of us who exited El Fasher as a group, but only eight made it to Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies close to what he described as a fraudulent water source used by the RSF and allied militias between Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he says. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They murdered 22 males at that location and carried the bodies off to obscure them.”

Another nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital after the attack on Sunday stated RSF combatants came in using one doorway and commenced firing upon patients in the emergency ward, murdering no less than eight. “We escaped through a different gate, but they hit me on the head with a firearm,” he states.

Through a video declaration this past Wednesday, the RSF commander, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, declared that any fighter or commander who infringed upon the rights of any person” would be held accountable.

Many of those who escaped from El Fasher passed hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit prior to escaping westward under darkness's protection. 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.

People apprehended by RSF forces in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour