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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a nurse for the past three years at El Fasher South hospital as the city became taken over on Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was busy treating patients, including an elderly woman who needed a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“Six injured soldiers were killed and civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she recounts. “The outcome remains unknown regarding my other patients. I needed to escape after they raided the medical facility.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and thigh while RSF combatants gained control of the adjacent military command center. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, wounded and without nourishment, to get to the settlement of Garney. “On the way, they took my phone and money,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – comprising women and children – walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila within North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which fell under control after an 18-month siege.

Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the west of El Fasher, is governed by of the Sudan Liberation Army faction led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

On Tuesday, the Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – charged the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. The UN reported there were videos depicting dozens of weaponless men who were shot or found dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Historical Background

Hostilities commenced in Sudan's capital back on April 15, 2023 when an intensifying power struggle involving the two key groups of the military regime ultimately became violent.

Among the combatants stand the Sudanese military forces, which maintain general loyalty to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Opposing him exist the irregular troops of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an assembly of militia groups that obey the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with widespread atrocities. In 2013, Bashir reformed the faction to become the RSF, deploying them to crush a recent insurrection in South Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in recent history”, based on UN statements. It has created the world’s worst displacement crisis, dispersing over 10 million individuals inside the nation and 4 million who have fled to adjacent nations, generating growing stress on Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Based on eyewitness accounts, thousands more civilians continue to be held by the RSF and associated armed groups in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel belonging to the Sudanese military, the collaborative forces and other armed groups which had been combatting together with the army. Reports indicate they're imprisoned because they cannot afford ransom demands of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been detained for days, and in some cases freed only when becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed government troops fleeing El Fasher to come into 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 in the Garney vicinity.

“They intended to behead me with a knife,” he recounts, displaying his arm, that one combatant struck using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Subsequently one identified me – his brother was my colleague – and urged them not to execute me. There were 18 of us who departed El Fasher collectively, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub reports he observed 22 corpses in proximity to what he termed a fraudulent water source used by the RSF and allied militias in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he comments. “People walk all day without water, and upon arriving there, the militias are waiting. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and took the bodies away to hide them.”

Another nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive reported RSF militiamen penetrated via one entrance and opened fire on patients in the ER section, causing at least eight fatalities. “We ran out via another entrance, however they struck my head using a rifle,” he recounts.

Through a video declaration last Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, declared that any fighter or officer who had “violated the right of any person” would be held accountable.

Several people who got away from El Fasher passed hours taking cover close to army artillery positions before fleeing west under cover of darkness. Previously displaced households originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement were forced to move again, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

Those captured by the RSF within Garney reportedly received {water mixed with flour|flour