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Nawal Khalil had been working as a medical volunteer over a three-year period in the El Fasher South medical facility when the city was seized last Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was occupied with patient care, featuring one senior woman in need of a transfusion, when the offensive started.

“Six injured soldiers were killed plus civilian patients in their beds – including some women,” she states. “I don’t know what happened for my remaining patients. I was forced to flee after they raided the medical facility.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and her thigh while RSF combatants gained control of the nearby military headquarters. She escaped from the city and walked for a day, wounded and without nourishment, to reach the town of Garney. “Along the route, they seized my mobile and cash,” she says. “I was left with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – including women and children – walked for two days to get to the settlement of Tawila in North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which was captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

This settlement, approximately 34 miles westward away from El Fasher, remains under the authority by the SLA faction led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

This past Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – 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 either being shot or deceased, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Background Context

Hostilities commenced in Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as an escalating power struggle between the two main factions within the military government eventually resulted in fatalities.

On one side are the Sudanese armed forces, that stay mostly faithful to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Opposing him exist the irregular troops belonging to the RSF, an assembly of militia groups who follow the former warlord General Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with massive human rights violations. In 2013, Bashir transformed the group into the RSF, using them to quell a new uprising within South Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in contemporary history, according to UN officials. It has created the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, forcing more than 10 million persons inside the nation along with 4 million refugees to bordering states, creating increasing strain on both Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

Per observer reports, thousands more civilians stay confined by RSF forces and associated armed groups in the Garney area, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from Sudan's armed forces, the allied Joint Forces and other armed groups that had been fighting alongside the army. They are reportedly being held because they cannot afford ransom requests between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who arrived in Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been held for multiple days, and in some cases let go solely after falling seriously ill.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized army soldiers running from El Fasher to come into Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, 28, a motorist originating from Sennar within central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed following his capture by three camel-riding militiamen close to Garney.

“They intended to behead me with a knife,” he recounts, showing his arm, that one combatant struck 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. We were 18 people who departed El Fasher collectively, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub reports he saw 22 bodies close to what he described as a “fake well” used by the RSF and partner armed groups between Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he comments. “People walk all day without water, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They murdered 22 males at that location and carried the bodies off to conceal them.”

Another nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility subsequent to Sunday's offensive reported RSF militiamen penetrated via one entrance and opened fire on patients within the emergency department, causing at least eight fatalities. “We ran out via another entrance, yet they assaulted my head with a rifle,” he states.

Through a video declaration last Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, said that any soldier or official who breached the rights of any civilian would be punished.

Numerous individuals who fled from El Fasher passed hours taking cover close to army artillery positions before running west under darkness's protection. Previously displaced households from Abu Shouk camp in the city were forced to move again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

Those captured by the RSF in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour