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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a medical volunteer over a three-year period within the South El Fasher hospital as the city became seized last Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was busy treating patients, featuring one senior woman in need of a transfusion, when the offensive started.

“Six injured soldiers were killed and civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she states. “The outcome remains unknown for my remaining patients. I needed to escape as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 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, hurt and lacking sustenance, to arrive at Garney town. “Along the route, they took my phone and cash,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – including women and children – walked for two days to get to the settlement of Tawila located in northern Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was captured after an 18-month siege.

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

This past Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – accused the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians following the urban center's takeover. The UN reported that visual evidence showed depicting dozens of weaponless men either being shot or deceased, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Contextual Information

Conflict erupted within Khartoum during April of 2023 when an intensifying power struggle between the two main factions of the military regime ultimately became violent.

From one perspective stand the Sudanese military forces, which maintain general loyalty to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Challenging him stand the paramilitary forces of the RSF paramilitary group, an assembly of militia groups which support the ex-warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab anti-rebellion militia named the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with massive human rights violations. During 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the RSF, sending them to suppress a recent insurrection within South Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history”, as per UN representatives. It has produced the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, scattering more than 10 million people internally plus 4 million who escaped into neighbouring countries, putting mounting pressure on Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Per observer reports, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and allied militias within Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from the Sudanese army, the allied Joint Forces and other militant organizations that had been fighting alongside the army. They are reportedly being held as they lack funds for ransom demands ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), per those who escaped who reached Tawila. Those unable to pay have been detained for days, and in some cases let go solely after falling seriously ill.

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

The individual 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 blade,” he tells, displaying his arm, that one combatant struck using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Then one of them recognised me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and begged them not to kill me. There were 18 of us who left El Fasher together, but only eight made it to Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub reports he observed 22 corpses near what he called a deceptive well used by the RSF and associated militias between Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he says. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and upon arriving there, the militiamen await. They murdered 22 males at that location and removed the corpses to conceal them.”

Another nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital after the attack on Sunday reported RSF militiamen penetrated using one doorway and commenced firing upon patients in the emergency ward, causing at least eight fatalities. “We ran out via another entrance, but they hit me on the head with a firearm,” he states.

In a video statement on Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or official who breached the rights of any civilian would be punished.

Numerous individuals who fled from El Fasher passed hours concealing themselves near military artillery before running west during nighttime. Already displaced families originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement had to displace once more, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before finally moving toward Tawila.

Individuals seized by the RSF within Garney reportedly received {water mixed with flour|flour