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Nawal Khalil had been working as a healthcare worker over a three-year period within the South El Fasher hospital after the city fell captured on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was busy treating patients, featuring one senior woman who needed a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel along with civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she says. “The outcome remains unknown to my other patients. I had to run as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and upper leg during the RSF's seizure of the closeby army headquarters. 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 took my phone and currency,” she says. “I ended up with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – including women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to reach the town of Tawila in North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the west from El Fasher, is governed by of the Sudan Liberation Army faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

On Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – charged the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants since the fall of the city. The UN reported that visual evidence showed showing “dozens of unarmed men being shot or lying dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Background Context

Hostilities commenced within Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as an escalating power struggle involving the two key groups within the military government ultimately became violent.

On one side are the Sudanese armed forces, who remain broadly loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Against him stand the paramilitary forces belonging to the RSF, an assembly of militia groups who follow the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab counterinsurgency militia called the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with extensive brutalities. In 2013, Bashir reformed the faction into the Rapid Support Forces, sending them to suppress a fresh rebellion in southern Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in contemporary history, based on UN statements. It has generated the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, forcing more than 10 million persons within the country and 4 million who have fled to bordering states, creating increasing strain on both Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Per observer reports, thousands more civilians stay confined by RSF forces and associated armed groups within Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Several are previous army members from Sudan's armed forces, the Joint Forces plus additional armed factions which had been combatting together with the army. They are reportedly being held as they lack funds for extortion payments of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), according to survivors who made it to Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been held for multiple days, and in some cases freed only when becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted army soldiers running from El Fasher to come into Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a motorist originating from Sennar within central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed after being captured by three armed men mounted on camels in the Garney vicinity.

“They planned to decapitate me with a knife,” he informs, exhibiting his limb, that one combatant struck with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Subsequently one identified 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 believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub reports he saw 22 bodies in proximity to what he termed a “fake well” employed by the RSF and associated militias between Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he says. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and when they get to it, the armed groups lie in wait. They killed 22 men there and carried the bodies off to hide them.”

Another nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility subsequent to Sunday's offensive stated RSF combatants came in through one gate and opened fire on patients in the ER section, causing at least eight fatalities. “We escaped through a different gate, but they hit me on the head using a rifle,” he recounts.

Via a recorded message last Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or commander who infringed upon the rights of any individual would face consequences.

Many of those who escaped El Fasher spent hours concealing themselves near military artillery before fleeing west under darkness's protection. Families already uprooted from Abu Shouk camp in the city had to displace once more, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before finally moving toward Tawila.

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