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Nawal Khalil had been working as a healthcare worker for three years in the El Fasher South medical facility as the city became captured on Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was busy treating patients, featuring one senior woman in need of a transfusion, when the attack began.

“Six injured soldiers were killed along with civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she states. “I don’t know what happened regarding my other patients. I needed to escape when they stormed the hospital.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, was shot in the right foot and upper leg as RSF fighters took control of the closeby army headquarters. She ran from the urban area and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, wounded and without nourishment, to reach the town of Garney. “During the journey, they seized my mobile and cash,” she says. “I was left with nothing.”

More than 1,000 people – featuring females and minors – walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila within North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was seized after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

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

Last Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – accused the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants since the fall of the city. The UN reported there were videos depicting dozens of weaponless men who were shot or found dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Historical Background

Fighting broke out in Sudan's capital during April of 2023 as a growing contest for power involving the two key groups of the military regime ultimately became violent.

On one side are the Sudanese armed forces, who remain broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Against him exist the irregular troops of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an assembly of militia groups that obey the former warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the former dictatorial ruler Bashir's regime as an Arab counterinsurgency militia named the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with massive human rights violations. Back in 2013, Bashir transformed the group into the RSF, sending them to suppress a fresh rebellion in southern Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history”, according to UN officials. It has generated the globe's most severe displacement emergency, scattering more than 10 million people internally plus 4 million who escaped to bordering states, putting mounting pressure on both Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

According to witnesses, many additional civilians remain trapped by the RSF and allied militias in the Garney area, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers belonging to the Sudanese military, the collaborative forces and other militant organizations 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 (£6,000 to £12,000), based on survivor accounts who made it to Tawila. Those unable to pay have been held for multiple days, and in some cases freed only when becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed army soldiers running from El Fasher to enter Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

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

“They planned to decapitate me with a knife,” he recounts, displaying his arm, which one militant assaulted with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother was my colleague – and urged them not to execute me. There were 18 of us who exited El Fasher as a group, but only eight made it to Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies in proximity to what he termed a deceptive well utilized by RSF forces and allied militias between Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he says. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and took the bodies away to hide them.”

An additional nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital after the attack on Sunday reported RSF militiamen penetrated using one doorway and began shooting at patients in the ER section, killing at least eight. “We ran out via another entrance, but they hit me on the head using a rifle,” he says.

Via a recorded message this past Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or officer who had “violated the right of any individual would face consequences.

Numerous individuals who fled El Fasher utilized hours taking cover close to army artillery positions prior to escaping westward under darkness's protection. Families already uprooted from Abu Shouk camp in the city were forced to move again, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before eventually heading for Tawila.

Individuals seized by the RSF within Garney reportedly received {water mixed with flour|flour