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Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a nurse for three years within the South El Fasher hospital after the city fell captured on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was occupied with patient care, among them an older female patient in need of a transfusion, when the attack began.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel and civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she says. “I don’t know what happened regarding my other patients. I needed to escape as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and her thigh as RSF fighters took control of the adjacent military command center. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, injured and without food, to reach the town of Garney. “During the journey, they seized my mobile and cash,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

More than 1,000 people – comprising women and children – walked for two days to get to the settlement of Tawila in North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which fell under control after an 18-month siege.

Tawila, approximately 34 miles westward from El Fasher, is governed by of the SLA-AW group under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

Last Tuesday, the Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – blamed the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. United Nations officials stated that footage existed showing “dozens of unarmed men who were shot or found dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Historical Background

Fighting broke out in Khartoum during April of 2023 as an escalating power struggle involving the two key groups of the military regime eventually resulted in fatalities.

On one side exist the official Sudanese army, who remain broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Against him stand the paramilitary forces of the RSF paramilitary group, a collection of militias who follow the former warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab counterinsurgency militia called the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with massive human rights violations. In 2013, Bashir reformed the faction to become 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 contemporary history, as per UN representatives. It has generated the world’s worst displacement crisis, scattering more than 10 million people internally along with 4 million refugees into neighbouring countries, creating increasing strain on both Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

Based on eyewitness accounts, numerous more non-combatants remain trapped by the RSF and partner militias in the Garney area, south-west of El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from the Sudanese army, the collaborative forces and other militant organizations that were previously aligned with the military. They are reportedly being held since they cannot pay ransom requests of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), based on survivor accounts who made it to Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been held for multiple days, and sometimes freed only when becoming gravely ill.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized army soldiers running from El Fasher to enter Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a chauffeur from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, closely avoided death following his capture by three armed men mounted on camels near Garney.

“They intended to behead me with a blade,” he recounts, exhibiting his limb, that one combatant struck with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother was my colleague – and urged them not to execute me. Our group contained 18 individuals who left El Fasher together, but only eight made it to Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub states he observed 22 corpses close to what he described as a deceptive well utilized by RSF forces and partner armed groups along the Garney-Tawila route. “This is an ambush,” he comments. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and removed the corpses to hide them.”

An additional nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive stated RSF combatants came in via one entrance and opened fire on patients in the ER section, murdering no less than eight. “We ran out via another entrance, however they struck my head using a rifle,” he states.

Through a video declaration last Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Dagalo, called Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or officer who had “violated the right of any person” would be held accountable.

Many of those who escaped El Fasher utilized hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit before running west under cover of darkness. Previously displaced households originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement had to displace once more, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

People apprehended by RSF forces in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour