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

“Six injured soldiers were killed along with civilians in their beds – including some women,” she recounts. “I don’t know what happened for my remaining patients. I needed to escape after they raided the medical facility.”

Khalil, 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and thigh as RSF fighters took control of the closeby army headquarters. She ran from the urban area and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, hurt and lacking sustenance, to get to the settlement of Garney. “During the journey, they confiscated my phone and money,” she explains. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – including women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to arrive at Tawila town in North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

The town of Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the west from El Fasher, is under the control by the SLA faction commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

Last Tuesday, the Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – blamed the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians following the urban center's takeover. The UN reported there were videos featuring numerous unarmed males either being shot or deceased, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Contextual Information

Conflict erupted in Sudan's capital back on April 15, 2023 as an escalating power struggle between the two main factions within the military government finally turned deadly.

Among the combatants exist the official Sudanese army, who remain broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. 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, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the ex-dictator Bashir's regime as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with extensive brutalities. In 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the Rapid Support Forces, sending them to suppress a recent insurrection within South Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in contemporary history, based on UN statements. It has created the globe's most severe displacement emergency, scattering more than 10 million people within the country and 4 million who have fled into neighbouring countries, generating growing stress upon Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

According to witnesses, numerous more non-combatants remain trapped by the RSF and partner militias in the Garney area, southwest from El Fasher. Several are previous army members from Sudan's armed forces, the allied Joint Forces plus additional armed factions that were previously aligned with the military. They are reportedly being held as they lack funds for ransom demands of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), based on survivor accounts who reached Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been held for multiple days, and occasionally released only after developing critical health conditions.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized army soldiers running from El Fasher to enter Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

The individual Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a chauffeur from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, barely avoided execution following his capture by three camel-riding militiamen in the Garney vicinity.

“They wanted to cut my head off using a knife,” he recounts, showing his arm, which one militant assaulted with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother had worked with me – and begged them not to kill me. There were 18 of us who exited El Fasher as a group, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub reports he witnessed 22 deceased individuals close to what he described as a “fake well” employed by the RSF and associated militias between Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he comments. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they reach it, the armed groups lie in wait. They murdered 22 males at that location and took the bodies away to conceal them.”

Another nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility after the attack on Sunday said RSF fighters entered through one gate and commenced firing upon patients within the emergency department, causing at least eight fatalities. “We ran out via another entrance, but they hit me on the head with a firearm,” he recounts.

Via a recorded message last Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, said that any soldier or commander who infringed upon the rights of any civilian would be punished.

Several people who got away El Fasher utilized hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit before fleeing west under cover of darkness. Previously displaced households from Abu Shouk camp in the city had to displace once more, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

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