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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been working as a medical volunteer over a three-year period within the South El Fasher hospital as the city became captured on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was occupied with patient care, including an elderly woman who needed a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“Six injured soldiers were killed and civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she recounts. “The outcome remains unknown regarding my other patients. I needed to escape after they raided the medical facility.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and thigh while RSF combatants gained control of the adjacent military command center. She escaped from the city and walked for a day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to arrive at Garney town. “During the journey, they took my phone and currency,” she explains. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – featuring females and minors – walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila within North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was captured after an 18-month siege.

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

On Tuesday, the allied 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 said that visual evidence showed showing “dozens of unarmed men either being shot or deceased, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Historical Background

Fighting broke out in Sudan's capital on 15 April 2023 as a growing contest for power involving the two key groups within the military government finally turned deadly.

From one perspective exist the official Sudanese army, that stay mostly faithful to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Against him stand the paramilitary forces belonging to the RSF, an assembly of militia groups that obey the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the previous authoritarian leader Bashir's regime as an Arab anti-rebellion militia called the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with extensive brutalities. Back in 2013, Bashir reformed the faction into the RSF, using them to quell a new uprising in southern Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in recent history”, as per UN representatives. It has produced the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, scattering more than 10 million people internally plus 4 million who escaped into neighbouring countries, creating increasing strain on both Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Based on eyewitness accounts, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and associated armed groups within Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from Sudan's armed forces, the allied Joint Forces plus additional armed factions that had been fighting alongside the army. They are reportedly being held since they cannot pay ransom demands between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), based on survivor accounts who made it to Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been detained for days, and in some cases released only after falling seriously ill.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed military personnel escaping El Fasher to enter Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

Adam Yagoub, 28, a chauffeur from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, closely avoided death after being captured by three armed men mounted on camels in the Garney vicinity.

“They intended to behead me using a knife,” he tells, exhibiting his limb, which one of the fighters hit using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother had worked with me – and begged them not to kill me. Our group contained 18 individuals who departed El Fasher collectively, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub reports he saw 22 bodies close to what he described as a fraudulent water source employed by the RSF and associated militias in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he explains. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and upon arriving there, the armed groups lie in wait. They killed 22 men there and carried the bodies off to hide them.”

An additional nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive reported RSF militiamen penetrated via one entrance and began shooting at patients in the ER section, causing at least eight fatalities. “We ran out via another entrance, but they hit me on the head with a firearm,” he says.

Through a video declaration this past Wednesday, the RSF commander, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, declared that any fighter or official who breached the rights of any person” would be held accountable.

Many of those who escaped El Fasher spent 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, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before finally moving toward Tawila.

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