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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been serving as a healthcare worker for the past three years at El Fasher South hospital 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, when the offensive started.

“They killed six wounded soldiers plus civilian patients in their beds – some of them women,” she says. “The outcome remains unknown for my remaining patients. I was forced to flee when they stormed the hospital.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, was shot in the right foot and thigh during the RSF's seizure of the adjacent military command center. She fled the city and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, wounded and without nourishment, to reach the town of Garney. “During the journey, they took my phone and money,” she describes. “I was left with nothing.”

More than 1,000 people – featuring females and minors – walked for two days to arrive at Tawila town in North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was captured after an 18-month siege.

This settlement, approximately 34 miles westward away from El Fasher, is under the control by the SLA faction commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

Last Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – blamed the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. United Nations officials stated there were videos showing “dozens of unarmed men either being shot or deceased, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Historical Background

Fighting broke out in Sudan's capital during April of 2023 as an escalating power struggle between the two main factions of the armed forces leadership eventually resulted in fatalities.

On one side are the Sudanese armed forces, which maintain general loyalty to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Opposing him exist the irregular troops of the RSF paramilitary group, a gathering of armed factions that obey the former warlord General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir himself as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with widespread atrocities. During 2013, Bashir reformed the faction to become the RSF, deploying them to crush a recent insurrection in South Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in contemporary history, based on UN statements. It has produced the world’s worst displacement crisis, scattering more than 10 million people within the country plus 4 million who escaped to bordering states, generating growing stress on both Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

According to witnesses, thousands more civilians stay confined by RSF forces and partner militias within Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from the Sudanese army, the Joint Forces and other armed groups that were previously aligned with the military. Reports indicate they're imprisoned since they cannot pay extortion payments of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), based on survivor accounts who arrived in Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been held for multiple days, and occasionally released only after developing critical health conditions.

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

A man named Adam Yagoub, 28, a driver from Sennar within central Sudan, closely avoided death after being captured by three militiamen on camels in the Garney vicinity.

“They planned to decapitate me with a blade,” he recounts, displaying his arm, which one of the fighters hit with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother had worked with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. Our group contained 18 individuals who departed El Fasher collectively, but only eight made it to Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies close to what he described as a “fake well” employed by the RSF and associated militias along the Garney-Tawila route. “It represents a trap,” he comments. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they get to it, the armed groups lie in wait. They killed 22 men there and removed the corpses to hide them.”

Another nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital after the attack on Sunday said RSF fighters entered through one gate and commenced firing upon 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 rifle,” he says.

Via a recorded message on Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or commander who infringed upon the rights of any person” would be held accountable.

Several people who got away El Fasher spent hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit prior to escaping westward under darkness's protection. Families already uprooted from Abu Shouk camp in the city were compelled to relocate again, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before finally moving toward Tawila.

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