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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been working as a healthcare worker for three years within the South El Fasher hospital after the city fell captured on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was actively caring for the sick, including an elderly woman who needed a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel along with civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she states. “I am unaware of the fate for my remaining patients. I needed to escape when they stormed the hospital.”

Khalil, 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and upper leg as RSF fighters took control of the adjacent military command center. She escaped from the city and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, wounded and without nourishment, to get to the settlement of Garney. “Along the route, they confiscated my phone and cash,” she explains. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

More than 1,000 people – featuring females and minors – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to reach the town of Tawila in North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

This settlement, about 34 miles (55km) west of El Fasher, is governed by of the SLA-AW group commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

This past Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – blamed the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians following the urban center's takeover. The UN reported that footage existed featuring numerous unarmed males either being shot or deceased, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Contextual Information

Fighting broke out in Sudan's capital during April of 2023 when an intensifying power struggle between the two main factions within the military government finally turned deadly.

From one perspective exist the official Sudanese army, who remain broadly loyal towards General al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Opposing him are the paramilitaries belonging to the RSF, a collection of militias which support the ex-warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab counterinsurgency militia named the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with extensive brutalities. In 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the Rapid Support Forces, deploying them to crush a recent insurrection in southern Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in recent history”, based on UN statements. It has generated the globe's most severe displacement emergency, scattering more than 10 million people within the country along with 4 million refugees into neighbouring countries, creating increasing strain upon Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Per observer reports, thousands more civilians stay confined by RSF forces and allied militias within Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel belonging to the Sudanese military, the Joint Forces plus additional armed factions which had been combatting together with the army. They are apparently detained as they lack funds for extortion payments ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), based on survivor accounts who made it to Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying remain imprisoned for several days, and sometimes released only after developing critical health conditions.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized government troops fleeing El Fasher to enter Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, 28, a driver from Sennar in central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed subsequent to his seizure by three camel-riding militiamen close to Garney.

“They planned to decapitate me with a blade,” he informs, displaying his arm, that one combatant struck with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother was my colleague – and urged them not to execute me. We were 18 people who exited El Fasher as a group, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies near what he called a fraudulent water source used by the RSF and partner armed groups in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he explains. “People walk all day without water, and upon arriving there, the militiamen await. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and removed the corpses to obscure them.”

Another nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility subsequent to Sunday's offensive stated RSF combatants came in through one gate and commenced firing upon patients within the emergency department, murdering no less than eight. “We escaped through a different gate, however they struck my head with a rifle,” he recounts.

Via a recorded message on Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or commander who infringed upon the rights of any civilian would be punished.

Several people who got away El Fasher utilized hours concealing themselves near military artillery prior to escaping westward under darkness's protection. Previously displaced households originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement were compelled to relocate again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before finally moving toward Tawila.

People apprehended by RSF forces in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour