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Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a medical volunteer over a three-year period in the El Fasher South medical facility after the city fell taken over on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was actively caring for the sick, featuring one senior woman in need of a transfusion, when the attack began.

“Six injured soldiers were killed along with civilians in their beds – including some women,” she says. “The outcome remains unknown to my other patients. I needed to escape when they stormed the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and thigh while RSF combatants gained control of the adjacent military command center. She ran from the urban area and traveled on foot for one day, injured and without food, to get to the settlement of Garney. “On the way, they seized my mobile and money,” she says. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – featuring females and minors – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to get to the settlement of Tawila within North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which fell under control after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

Tawila, about 34 miles (55km) west from El Fasher, is governed by of the Sudan Liberation Army faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

This past Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – blamed the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians following the urban center's takeover. United Nations officials stated that footage existed showing “dozens of unarmed men who were shot or found dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Background Context

Conflict erupted in Sudan's capital during April of 2023 when an intensifying power struggle between the two main factions within the military government finally turned deadly.

Among the combatants stand the Sudanese military forces, who remain broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Against him stand the paramilitary forces belonging to the RSF, a collection of militias who follow the former warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force known as the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with massive human rights violations. During 2013, Bashir reformed the faction to become the RSF, sending them to suppress a fresh rebellion in southern Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in modern times, according to UN officials. It has created the globe's most severe displacement emergency, dispersing over 10 million individuals internally and 4 million who have fled to bordering states, generating growing stress on both Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Per observer reports, numerous more non-combatants remain trapped by the RSF and allied militias within Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Several are previous army members belonging to the Sudanese military, the allied Joint Forces and other armed groups which had been combatting together with the army. They are apparently detained as they lack funds for ransom requests between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. Those unable to pay have been held for multiple days, and in some cases released only after developing critical health conditions.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized government troops fleeing El Fasher to enter Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a driver from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, narrowly escaped being killed after being captured by three militiamen on camels near Garney.

“They planned to decapitate me with a knife,” he tells, exhibiting his limb, which one militant assaulted with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Then one of them recognised me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and urged them not to execute me. Our group contained 18 individuals who exited El Fasher as a group, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub reports he witnessed 22 deceased individuals near what he called a “fake well” used by the RSF and associated militias in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he explains. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and upon arriving there, the militiamen await. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and removed the corpses to hide them.”

An additional nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital after the attack on Sunday stated RSF combatants came in using one doorway and began shooting at patients in the ER section, killing at least eight. “We fled through another gate, but they hit me on the head with a firearm,” he says.

Through a video declaration this past Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, declared that any fighter or official who breached the rights of any person” would be held accountable.

Several people who got away El Fasher utilized hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit before fleeing west during nighttime. Previously displaced households originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement were compelled to relocate again, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

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