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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a medical volunteer for three years in the El Fasher South medical facility after the city fell taken over on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was occupied with patient care, among them an older female patient requiring a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“They killed six wounded soldiers plus civilian patients in their beds – among them female victims,” she says. “I don’t know what happened regarding my other patients. I had to run as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, 27, was shot in the right foot and thigh as RSF fighters took control of the adjacent military command center. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to reach the town of Garney. “On the way, they confiscated my phone and cash,” she says. “I was left with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – including women and children – traveled on foot for two days to reach the town of Tawila within North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which fell under control after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

The town of Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the west away from El Fasher, remains under the authority by the SLA faction led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

On Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – blamed the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. United Nations officials stated that visual evidence showed depicting dozens of weaponless men being shot or lying dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Background Context

Fighting broke out in Sudan's capital on 15 April 2023 when an intensifying power struggle involving the two key groups of the armed forces leadership ultimately became violent.

From one perspective are the Sudanese armed forces, that stay mostly faithful to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Challenging him exist the irregular troops of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a gathering of armed factions that obey the former warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the ex-dictator Bashir's regime as an Arab counterinsurgency militia known as the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with widespread atrocities. In 2013, Bashir transformed the group to become the RSF, using them to quell a fresh rebellion within South Darfur.

The fighting has thrown Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in recent history”, based on UN statements. It has created the globe's most severe displacement emergency, scattering more than 10 million people inside the nation and 4 million who have fled to adjacent nations, generating growing stress on both Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

Based on eyewitness accounts, many additional civilians remain trapped by the RSF and associated armed groups in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Several are previous army members from Sudan's armed forces, the allied Joint Forces and other militant organizations that had been fighting alongside the army. They are reportedly being held since they cannot pay ransom requests of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), per those who escaped who reached Tawila. Those unable to pay have been detained for days, and sometimes released only after falling seriously ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted army soldiers running from El Fasher to enter Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

A man named Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a chauffeur from Sennar in central Sudan, closely avoided death following his capture by three militiamen on camels close to Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a knife,” he informs, displaying his arm, which one of the fighters hit using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Subsequently one identified me – his brother was my colleague – and begged them not to kill me. Our group contained 18 individuals who exited El Fasher as a group, but only eight made it to Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub reports he witnessed 22 deceased individuals near what he called a deceptive well employed by the RSF and associated militias between Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he says. “People walk all day without water, and upon arriving there, the militias are waiting. They killed 22 men there and removed the corpses to obscure them.”

Another nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility after the attack on Sunday reported RSF militiamen penetrated through one gate and commenced firing upon patients within the emergency department, killing at least eight. “We escaped through a different gate, but they hit me on the head with a firearm,” he recounts.

In a video statement this past Wednesday, the head of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or officer who had “violated the right of any civilian would be punished.

Many of those who escaped El Fasher utilized hours taking cover close to army artillery positions prior to escaping westward under darkness's protection. Previously displaced households from the city’s Abu Shouk camp were forced to move again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before eventually heading for Tawila.

Individuals seized by the RSF in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour