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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been working as a nurse for the past three years within the South El Fasher hospital as the city became taken over on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was actively caring for the sick, among them an older female patient in need of a transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“Six injured soldiers were killed along with civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she states. “The outcome remains unknown to my other patients. I had to run as they invaded the hospital.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and her thigh during the RSF's seizure of the closeby army headquarters. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, wounded and without nourishment, to get to the settlement of Garney. “During the journey, they took my phone and cash,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

More than 1,000 people – including women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to arrive at Tawila town located in northern Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

The town of Tawila, approximately 34 miles westward from El Fasher, is under the control of the SLA-AW group led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

On Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – charged the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants since the fall of the city. The UN reported there were videos featuring numerous unarmed males either being shot or deceased, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Contextual Information

Conflict erupted within Khartoum back on April 15, 2023 as a growing contest for power between the two main factions of the military regime eventually resulted in fatalities.

From one perspective stand the Sudanese military forces, that stay mostly faithful to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Opposing him are the paramilitaries belonging to the RSF, a gathering of armed factions that obey the former warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab anti-rebellion militia named the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with massive human rights violations. Back in 2013, Bashir transformed the group into the RSF, deploying them to crush a recent insurrection within South Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in modern times, as per UN representatives. It has produced the world’s worst displacement crisis, dispersing over 10 million individuals within the country and 4 million who have fled to bordering states, putting mounting pressure upon Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

Based on eyewitness accounts, thousands more civilians remain trapped by the RSF and partner militias in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Several are previous army members from the Sudanese army, the collaborative forces plus additional armed factions which had been combatting together with the army. They are reportedly being held since they cannot pay ransom demands between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), according to survivors who arrived in Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been detained for days, and sometimes released only after becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted military personnel escaping El Fasher to come into Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

The individual Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a motorist originating from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, narrowly escaped being killed subsequent to his seizure by three militiamen on camels close to Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a blade,” he tells, showing his arm, which one militant assaulted with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Afterward one remembered me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. We were 18 people who left El Fasher together, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub reports he observed 22 corpses in proximity to what he termed a deceptive well utilized by RSF forces and partner armed groups along the Garney-Tawila route. “This is an ambush,” he says. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They murdered 22 males at that location and took the bodies away to hide them.”

Another nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital after the attack on Sunday said RSF fighters entered using one doorway and commenced firing upon patients in the ER section, murdering no less than eight. “We ran out via another entrance, however they struck my head with a firearm,” he says.

Via a recorded message last Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Dagalo, called Hemedti, said that any soldier or official who breached the rights of any person” would be held accountable.

Numerous individuals who fled El Fasher spent hours concealing themselves near military artillery before fleeing west under cover of darkness. Families already uprooted from Abu Shouk camp in the city were compelled to relocate again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before finally moving toward Tawila.

Those captured by the RSF in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour