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Nawal Khalil had been serving as a medical volunteer for the past three years in the El Fasher South medical facility as the city became seized last Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was actively caring for the sick, including an elderly woman who needed a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“Six injured soldiers were killed and civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she recounts. “I am unaware of the fate to my other patients. I needed to escape when they stormed the hospital.”

Khalil, 27, was shot in the right foot and upper leg as RSF fighters took control of the nearby military headquarters. She ran from the urban area and traveled on foot for one day, wounded and without nourishment, to arrive at Garney town. “On the way, they confiscated my phone and currency,” she says. “I was left with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – including women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to get to the settlement of Tawila located in northern Darfur after running from El Fasher, which fell under control following an 18-month blockade.

The town of Tawila, about 34 miles (55km) west from El Fasher, remains under the authority by the SLA faction commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

Last Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – blamed the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. United Nations officials stated that footage existed featuring numerous unarmed males who were shot or found dead, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Historical Background

Fighting broke out within Khartoum during April of 2023 when an intensifying power struggle among the two primary factions of the armed forces leadership eventually resulted in fatalities.

From one perspective stand the Sudanese military forces, who remain broadly loyal towards General al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Challenging him are the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a gathering of armed factions that obey the former warlord General Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir as an Arab anti-rebellion militia called the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with widespread atrocities. Back in 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the RSF, sending them to suppress a recent insurrection in South Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in recent history”, as per UN representatives. It has generated the globe's most severe displacement emergency, dispersing over 10 million individuals internally and 4 million who have fled to adjacent nations, putting mounting pressure on Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

According to witnesses, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and allied militias in the Garney area, south-west of El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from the Sudanese army, the allied Joint Forces and other armed groups that had been fighting alongside the army. They are reportedly being held since they cannot pay extortion payments ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), according to survivors who reached Tawila. Those unable to pay remain imprisoned for several days, and occasionally freed only when developing critical health conditions.

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

A man named Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a chauffeur from Sennar in central Sudan, closely avoided death subsequent to his seizure by three camel-riding militiamen near Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a blade,” he recounts, exhibiting his limb, which one of the fighters hit using an AK-47 rifle butt. “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, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub reports he saw 22 bodies near what he called a fraudulent water source employed by the RSF and associated militias along the Garney-Tawila route. “It’s a trap,” he comments. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they get to it, the armed groups lie in wait. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and carried the bodies off to obscure them.”

A different medical worker who ran from South El Fasher hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive said RSF fighters entered via one entrance and opened fire on patients in the emergency ward, murdering no less than eight. “We ran out via another entrance, but they hit me on the head with a rifle,” he states.

Through a video declaration this past Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Dagalo, called Hemedti, declared that any fighter or officer who had “violated the right of any person” would be held accountable.

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 prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

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