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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been working as a nurse for three years within the South El Fasher hospital as the city became seized last Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was actively caring for the sick, including an elderly woman who needed a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“They killed six wounded soldiers and civilians in their beds – including some women,” she recounts. “I am unaware of the fate regarding my other patients. I needed to escape as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 27, was shot in the right foot and thigh as RSF fighters took control of the nearby military headquarters. She escaped from the city and traveled on foot for one day, wounded and without nourishment, to arrive at Garney town. “Along the route, they confiscated my phone and money,” she says. “I was left with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – featuring females and minors – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to reach the town of Tawila located in northern Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which fell under control after an 18-month siege.

This settlement, about 34 miles (55km) west away from El Fasher, is under the control of the Sudan Liberation Army faction commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

Last Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – accused the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. The UN said that visual evidence showed depicting dozens of weaponless men being shot or lying dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Contextual Information

Hostilities commenced within Khartoum during April of 2023 as a growing contest for power among the two primary factions within the military government ultimately became violent.

From one perspective are the Sudanese armed forces, that stay mostly faithful towards General al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Against him exist the irregular troops of the RSF paramilitary group, an assembly of militia groups who follow the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir as an Arab counterinsurgency militia named the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with massive human rights violations. During 2013, Bashir transformed the group into the RSF, sending them to suppress a recent insurrection within South Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in recent history”, as per UN representatives. It has created the world’s worst displacement crisis, 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, thousands more civilians stay confined by RSF forces and partner militias within Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Several are previous army members belonging to the Sudanese military, the Joint Forces and other militant organizations that had been fighting alongside the army. Reports indicate they're imprisoned as they lack funds for ransom requests ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), according to survivors who reached Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been held for multiple days, and sometimes released only after becoming gravely ill.

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

A man named Adam Yagoub, 28, a motorist originating from Sennar within central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed after being captured by three armed men mounted on camels in the Garney vicinity.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a blade,” he recounts, exhibiting his limb, 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 departed El Fasher collectively, but only eight made it to Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub says he observed 22 corpses near what he called a deceptive well employed by the RSF and associated militias in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he says. “People walk all day without water, and when they reach it, the armed groups lie in wait. They killed 22 men there and carried the bodies off to conceal them.”

A different medical worker who fled the El Fasher South medical facility following Sunday's assault reported RSF militiamen penetrated via one entrance and began shooting at patients in the ER section, killing at least eight. “We fled through another gate, but they hit me on the head with a firearm,” he recounts.

Through a video declaration on Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or official who breached the rights of any individual would face consequences.

Several people who got away El Fasher utilized hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit before fleeing west under cover of darkness. Already displaced families originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement had to displace once more, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before eventually heading for Tawila.

Individuals seized by the RSF in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour