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Nawal Khalil had been serving as a healthcare worker over a three-year period in the El Fasher South medical facility after the city fell captured on Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. 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 along with civilians in their beds – including some women,” she says. “I am unaware of the fate regarding my other patients. I was forced to flee as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 27, was shot in the right foot and 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 arrive at Garney town. “On the way, they confiscated my phone and money,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – including women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to arrive at Tawila town located in northern Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was seized after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

This settlement, approximately 34 miles westward away from El Fasher, is governed by of the Sudan Liberation Army faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

This past Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – charged the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants after the city's capture. United Nations officials stated that visual evidence showed featuring numerous unarmed males being shot or lying dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Contextual Information

Hostilities commenced within Khartoum back on April 15, 2023 as a growing contest for power between the two main factions within the military government ultimately became violent.

From one perspective stand the Sudanese military forces, who remain broadly loyal towards General al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Against him exist the irregular troops belonging to the RSF, a gathering of armed factions that obey the former warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab counterinsurgency militia called the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with extensive brutalities. In 2013, Bashir transformed the group to become the RSF, sending them to suppress a fresh rebellion within South Darfur.

The fighting has thrown Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in modern times, as per UN representatives. It has generated the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, dispersing over 10 million individuals internally plus 4 million who escaped to adjacent nations, creating increasing strain on both Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Per observer reports, thousands more civilians continue to be held by the RSF and allied militias within Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Several are previous army members from Sudan's armed forces, the Joint Forces plus additional armed factions that were previously aligned with the military. 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 reached Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been detained for days, and in some cases let go solely after falling seriously ill.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized military personnel escaping El Fasher to enter Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

A man named Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a motorist originating from Sennar in central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed subsequent to his seizure by three militiamen on camels near Garney.

“They planned to decapitate me with a blade,” he tells, showing his arm, that one combatant struck using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Then one of them recognised me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and urged them not to execute me. We were 18 people who left El Fasher together, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub states he saw 22 bodies near what he called a “fake well” used by the RSF and partner armed groups in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he explains. “People walk all day without water, and when they get to it, the militias are waiting. They killed 22 men there and carried the bodies off to conceal them.”

An additional nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility after the attack on Sunday reported RSF militiamen penetrated using one doorway and began shooting at patients in the ER section, murdering no less than eight. “We escaped through a different gate, however they struck my head using a rifle,” he says.

In a video statement this past Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said that any soldier or official who breached the rights of any civilian would be punished.

Several people who got away El Fasher utilized hours taking cover close to army artillery positions before running west under cover of darkness. Already displaced families originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement were forced to move again, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

People apprehended by RSF forces within Garney reportedly received {water mixed with flour|flour