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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been serving as a nurse over a three-year period in the El Fasher South medical facility after the city fell captured on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was actively caring for the sick, including an elderly woman in need of a transfusion, when the attack began.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel plus civilian patients in their beds – some of them women,” she states. “I don’t know what happened regarding my other patients. I was forced to flee after they raided the medical facility.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and her thigh while RSF combatants gained control of the closeby army headquarters. She ran from the urban area and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, wounded and without nourishment, to arrive at Garney town. “Along the route, they took my phone and money,” she describes. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – including women and children – traveled on foot for two days to arrive at Tawila town located in northern Darfur after running from El Fasher, which fell under control after an 18-month siege.

The town of Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the west of El Fasher, remains under the authority by the SLA faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

On Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – accused the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants following the urban center's takeover. United Nations officials stated that visual evidence showed featuring numerous unarmed males who were shot or found dead, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Contextual Information

Conflict erupted in Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as a growing contest for power involving the two key groups of the military regime finally turned deadly.

From one perspective are the Sudanese armed forces, which maintain general loyalty towards General al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Opposing him are the paramilitaries of the RSF paramilitary group, an assembly of militia groups that obey the former warlord General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the previous authoritarian leader Bashir's regime as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force known as the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with widespread atrocities. Back in 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the RSF, sending them to suppress a new uprising in southern Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in modern times, as per UN representatives. It has produced the world’s worst displacement crisis, scattering more than 10 million people inside the nation along with 4 million refugees into neighbouring countries, putting mounting pressure on both Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Based on eyewitness accounts, thousands more civilians continue to be held by the RSF and associated armed groups in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Several are previous army members from the Sudanese army, the collaborative forces and other armed groups that had been fighting alongside the army. They are apparently detained as they lack funds for ransom requests ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), according to survivors who reached Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been detained for days, and in some cases freed only when becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted military personnel escaping El Fasher to access Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

Adam Yagoub, 28, a chauffeur from Sennar in central Sudan, closely avoided death after being captured by three armed men mounted on camels close to Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a blade,” he informs, exhibiting his limb, that one combatant struck with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother was my colleague – and pleaded with them to spare me. We were 18 people who departed El Fasher collectively, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub reports he observed 22 corpses close to what he described as a “fake well” used by the RSF and partner armed groups along the Garney-Tawila route. “This is an ambush,” he comments. “People walk all day without water, and when they get to it, the militiamen await. They killed 22 men there and took the bodies away to hide them.”

A different medical worker who escaped El Fasher South hospital after the attack on Sunday reported RSF militiamen penetrated through one gate and opened fire on patients in the emergency ward, killing at least eight. “We fled through another gate, yet they assaulted my head with a rifle,” he states.

Via a recorded message last Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said that any soldier or commander who infringed upon the rights of any civilian would be punished.

Numerous individuals who fled El Fasher utilized hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit prior to escaping westward under darkness's protection. Already displaced families from Abu Shouk camp in the city were compelled to relocate again, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

Individuals seized by the RSF in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour