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Nawal Khalil had been serving as a medical volunteer for the past 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, including an elderly woman who needed a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel and civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she states. “The outcome remains unknown to my other patients. I had to run as they invaded the hospital.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, was shot in the right foot and her thigh as RSF fighters took control of the nearby military headquarters. She ran from the urban area and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, injured and without food, to get to the settlement of Garney. “Along the route, they seized my mobile and money,” she describes. “I ended up with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – comprising women and children – walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila within North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was seized after an 18-month siege.

Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the west of El Fasher, remains under the authority by the SLA faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

On Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – accused the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians following the urban center's takeover. The UN said that footage existed showing “dozens of unarmed men either being shot or deceased, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Historical Background

Fighting broke out within Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as an escalating power struggle between the two main factions of the military regime finally turned deadly.

From one perspective are the Sudanese armed forces, that stay mostly faithful towards General al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Challenging him exist the irregular troops of the RSF paramilitary group, a collection of militias that obey the former warlord General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir as an Arab counterinsurgency militia called the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with extensive brutalities. In 2013, Bashir transformed the group into the RSF, deploying them to crush a recent insurrection in southern Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in contemporary history, according to UN officials. It has created the globe's most severe displacement emergency, dispersing over 10 million individuals within the country plus 4 million who escaped into neighbouring countries, generating growing stress on Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

According to witnesses, thousands more civilians remain trapped by the RSF and associated armed groups in the Garney area, south-west of El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel belonging to the Sudanese military, the Joint Forces and other armed groups that were previously aligned with the military. They are reportedly being held as they lack funds for extortion payments between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), based on survivor accounts who arrived in Tawila. People who cannot afford payment remain imprisoned for several days, and sometimes let go solely after becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed government troops fleeing El Fasher to enter Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, 28, a motorist originating from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, closely avoided death following his capture by three camel-riding militiamen close to Garney.

“They intended to behead me 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 urged them not to execute me. We were 18 people who left El Fasher together, but only eight made it to Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies in proximity to what he termed a deceptive well employed by the RSF and associated militias along the Garney-Tawila route. “It’s a trap,” he explains. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and upon arriving there, the militiamen await. They murdered 22 males at that location and took the bodies away to hide them.”

An additional nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive said RSF fighters entered through one gate and began shooting at patients within the emergency department, killing at least eight. “We ran out via another entrance, however they struck my head using a rifle,” he says.

Via a recorded message last Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Dagalo, called Hemedti, declared that any fighter or officer who had “violated the right of any individual would face consequences.

Several people who got away El Fasher spent hours taking cover close to army artillery positions prior to escaping westward under darkness's protection. Already displaced families from the city’s Abu Shouk camp had to displace once more, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before finally moving toward Tawila.

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