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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been serving as a nurse for three years within the South El Fasher hospital after the city fell seized last Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was actively caring for the sick, among them an older female patient who needed a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

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

Khalil, 27, was shot in the right foot and thigh during the RSF's seizure of the closeby army headquarters. She ran from the urban area and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, injured and without food, to get to the settlement of Garney. “Along the route, they took my phone and currency,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

More than 1,000 people – including women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to reach the town of Tawila in North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was captured following an 18-month blockade.

This settlement, approximately 34 miles westward from El Fasher, remains under the authority of the Sudan Liberation Army faction commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

This past Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – charged the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants after the city's capture. The UN reported there were videos depicting dozens of weaponless men who were shot or found dead, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Historical Background

Fighting broke out in Sudan's capital back on April 15, 2023 as an escalating power struggle among the two primary factions of the armed forces leadership ultimately became violent.

From one perspective stand the Sudanese military forces, who remain broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Opposing him exist the irregular troops belonging to the RSF, a gathering of armed factions that obey the former warlord General Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with massive human rights violations. Back in 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the Rapid Support Forces, sending them to suppress a recent insurrection in southern Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in contemporary history, according to UN officials. It has produced the world’s worst displacement crisis, dispersing over 10 million individuals within the country and 4 million who have fled into neighbouring countries, generating growing stress on Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Per observer reports, numerous more non-combatants continue to be held by the RSF and associated armed groups in Garney, south-west of 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 of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who arrived in Tawila. People who cannot afford payment remain imprisoned for several days, and in some cases released only after falling seriously ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted army soldiers running from El Fasher to access Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

A man named Adam Yagoub, 28, a driver from Sennar within central Sudan, barely avoided execution following his capture by three camel-riding militiamen close to Garney.

“They intended to behead me using a knife,” he tells, exhibiting his limb, which one militant assaulted with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother was my colleague – and begged them not to kill me. Our group contained 18 individuals who exited El Fasher as a group, but only eight made it to Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub states he witnessed 22 deceased individuals near what he called a deceptive well utilized by RSF forces and allied militias between Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he explains. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they reach it, the militias are waiting. They murdered 22 males at that location and carried the bodies off to conceal them.”

Another nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive stated RSF combatants came in using one doorway and opened fire on patients in the ER section, causing at least eight fatalities. “We escaped through a different gate, yet they assaulted my head with a rifle,” he recounts.

Through a video declaration this past Wednesday, the head of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, declared that any fighter or officer who had “violated the right of any civilian would be punished.

Numerous individuals who fled from El Fasher passed hours taking cover close to army artillery positions prior to escaping westward under cover of darkness. Previously displaced households originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement were forced to move again, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before finally moving toward Tawila.

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