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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been working as a nurse for three years in the El Fasher South medical facility when the city was seized last Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was busy treating patients, featuring one senior woman requiring a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“They killed six wounded soldiers and civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she states. “I am unaware of the fate 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 closeby army headquarters. She escaped from the city and walked for a day, wounded and without nourishment, to arrive at Garney town. “During the journey, they seized my mobile and cash,” she explains. “I was left with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – including women and children – walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila in North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which was captured following an 18-month blockade.

This settlement, around 55 kilometers to the west from El Fasher, is under the control of the SLA-AW group led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

Last Tuesday, the Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – accused the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. United Nations officials stated there were videos depicting dozens of weaponless men who were shot or found dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Contextual Information

Hostilities commenced in Sudan's capital on 15 April 2023 as a growing contest for power among the two primary factions of the military regime ultimately became violent.

On one side are the Sudanese armed forces, which maintain general loyalty to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Against him are the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an assembly of militia groups who follow the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force named the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with massive human rights violations. During 2013, Bashir converted the organization to become the RSF, sending them to suppress a new uprising in southern Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in contemporary history, according to UN officials. It has generated the world’s worst displacement crisis, forcing more than 10 million persons inside the nation plus 4 million who escaped to adjacent nations, putting mounting pressure on both Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Based on eyewitness accounts, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and allied militias in Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from Sudan's armed forces, the Joint Forces and other armed groups which had been combatting together with the army. They are reportedly being held since they cannot pay ransom demands between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), per those who escaped who arrived in Tawila. People who cannot afford payment remain imprisoned for several days, and in some cases let go solely after falling seriously ill.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed government troops fleeing El Fasher to enter Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a chauffeur from Sennar in central Sudan, closely avoided death following his capture by three armed men mounted on camels near Garney.

“They intended to behead me using a knife,” he informs, exhibiting his limb, that one combatant struck with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother had worked with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. Our group contained 18 individuals who left El Fasher together, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies near what he called a fraudulent water source used by the RSF and partner armed groups in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he comments. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They killed 22 men there and took the bodies away to hide them.”

An additional nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital following Sunday's assault stated RSF combatants came in through one gate and began shooting at patients in the ER section, murdering no less than eight. “We escaped through a different gate, but they hit me on the head with a firearm,” he says.

Via a recorded message last Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, declared that any fighter or commander who infringed upon the rights of any person” would be held accountable.

Many of those who escaped from El Fasher passed hours concealing themselves near military artillery before fleeing west under darkness's protection. Already displaced families from Abu Shouk camp in the city had to displace once more, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before finally moving toward Tawila.

Those captured by the RSF in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour