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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been working as a healthcare worker for three years at El Fasher South hospital when the city was seized last Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was occupied with patient care, among them an older female patient requiring a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“Six injured soldiers were killed and 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 hit by a bullet in her right foot and upper leg while RSF combatants gained control of the adjacent military command center. She ran from the urban area and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, hurt and lacking sustenance, to get to the settlement of Garney. “On the way, they confiscated my phone and money,” she describes. “I ended up with nothing.”

More than 1,000 people – including women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to reach the town of Tawila within North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

Tawila, about 34 miles (55km) west away from El Fasher, is under the control of the Sudan Liberation Army faction led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

Last Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – blamed the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. The UN reported there were videos featuring numerous unarmed males being shot or lying dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Background Context

Hostilities commenced in Khartoum on 15 April 2023 when an intensifying power struggle involving the two key groups of the armed forces leadership finally turned deadly.

Among the combatants are the Sudanese armed forces, that stay mostly faithful to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Challenging him stand the paramilitary forces of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a collection of militias 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 an Arab counterinsurgency militia called the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with widespread atrocities. Back in 2013, Bashir reformed the faction into the RSF, deploying them to crush a fresh rebellion within South Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history”, based on UN statements. It has created the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, forcing more than 10 million persons within the country and 4 million who have fled to adjacent nations, putting mounting pressure upon Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

Per observer reports, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and associated armed groups within Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from Sudan's armed forces, the collaborative forces and other armed groups which had been combatting together with the army. Reports indicate they're imprisoned since they cannot pay extortion payments of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying remain imprisoned for several days, and occasionally released only after developing critical health conditions.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted military personnel escaping El Fasher to enter Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, 28, a chauffeur from Sennar within central Sudan, barely avoided execution following his capture by three armed men mounted on camels near Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a knife,” he tells, exhibiting his limb, which one militant assaulted with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother was my colleague – and urged them not to execute me. Our group contained 18 individuals who exited El Fasher as a group, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub states he witnessed 22 deceased individuals in proximity to what he termed a deceptive well employed by the RSF and partner armed groups between Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he says. “People walk all day without water, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and removed the corpses to conceal them.”

Another nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital after the attack on Sunday said RSF fighters entered using one doorway and began shooting at patients in the emergency ward, killing at least eight. “We escaped through a different gate, but they hit me on the head with a rifle,” he states.

Through a video declaration on Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, declared that any fighter or official who breached the rights of any civilian would be punished.

Numerous individuals who fled El Fasher spent hours taking cover close to army artillery positions prior to escaping westward under darkness's protection. Already displaced families from the city’s Abu Shouk camp were forced to move again, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before eventually heading for Tawila.

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