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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been working as a medical volunteer for three years within the South El Fasher hospital when the city was captured on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was actively caring for the sick, featuring one senior woman who needed a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel along with civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she recounts. “The outcome remains unknown for my remaining patients. I had to run as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, 27, was shot in the right foot and thigh as RSF fighters took control of the nearby military headquarters. She fled the city and walked for a day, injured and without food, to get to the settlement of Garney. “On the way, they seized my mobile and currency,” she explains. “I was left with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – comprising women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to get to the settlement of Tawila within North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which fell under control after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

The town of Tawila, about 34 miles (55km) west away from El Fasher, is governed by of the SLA-AW group commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

This past 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. United Nations officials stated there were videos depicting dozens of weaponless men being shot or lying dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Contextual Information

Conflict erupted in Sudan's capital on 15 April 2023 as a growing contest for power among the two primary factions within the military government eventually resulted in fatalities.

Among the combatants exist the official Sudanese army, that stay mostly faithful towards General al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Against him stand the paramilitary forces belonging to the RSF, an assembly of militia groups who follow the former warlord General Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir as an Arab anti-rebellion militia known as the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with massive human rights violations. Back in 2013, Bashir transformed the group into the RSF, sending them to suppress a new uprising within South Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in recent history”, based on UN statements. It has created the globe's most severe displacement emergency, scattering more than 10 million people inside the nation and 4 million who have fled to adjacent nations, creating increasing strain on both Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

According to witnesses, numerous more non-combatants remain trapped by the RSF and allied militias in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from the Sudanese army, the Joint Forces and other armed groups which had been combatting together with the army. Reports indicate they're imprisoned as they lack funds for ransom demands of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying remain imprisoned for several days, and occasionally freed only when developing critical health conditions.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed 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, barely avoided execution subsequent to his seizure by three armed men mounted on camels near Garney.

“They planned to decapitate me with a knife,” he informs, displaying his arm, which one of the fighters hit with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother was my colleague – and begged them not to kill me. There were 18 of us who exited El Fasher as a group, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies near what he called a “fake well” utilized by RSF forces and allied militias between Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he comments. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they reach it, the militias are waiting. They killed 22 men there and carried the bodies off to conceal them.”

A different medical worker who ran from South El Fasher hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive reported RSF militiamen penetrated through one gate and opened fire on patients within the emergency department, causing at least eight fatalities. “We ran out via another entrance, yet they assaulted my head with a rifle,” he says.

In a video statement this past Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said that any soldier or officer who had “violated the right of any person” would be held accountable.

Several people who got away El Fasher spent hours concealing themselves near military artillery before fleeing west under cover of darkness. Families already uprooted from the city’s Abu Shouk camp were compelled to relocate again, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before eventually heading for Tawila.

Those captured by the RSF in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour