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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been working as a healthcare worker for three years within the South El Fasher hospital after the city fell taken over on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was actively caring for the sick, among them an older female patient requiring a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“Six injured soldiers were killed plus civilian patients in their beds – some of them women,” she recounts. “The outcome remains unknown for my remaining patients. I had to run when they stormed the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and thigh as RSF fighters took 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 reach the town of Garney. “Along the route, they took my phone and currency,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

More than 1,000 people – featuring females and minors – walked for two days to arrive at Tawila town within North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which was captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

The town of Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the west of El Fasher, is under the control by the SLA faction commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

Last Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – accused the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants after the city's capture. The UN said that footage existed depicting dozens of weaponless men either being shot or deceased, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Contextual Information

Conflict erupted in Khartoum during April of 2023 as a growing contest for power between the two main factions of the military regime eventually resulted in fatalities.

From one perspective stand the Sudanese military forces, that stay mostly faithful towards General al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Opposing him stand the paramilitary forces of the RSF paramilitary group, a gathering of armed factions who follow the former warlord General Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir himself as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with massive human rights violations. During 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the Rapid Support Forces, using them to quell a fresh rebellion in South Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in modern times, according to UN officials. It has created the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, dispersing over 10 million individuals inside the nation plus 4 million who escaped to adjacent nations, generating growing stress on Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

According to witnesses, thousands more civilians stay confined by RSF forces and allied militias in Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Several are previous army members belonging to the Sudanese military, the Joint Forces and other militant organizations 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 (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who reached Tawila. Those unable to pay have been detained for days, and in some cases released only after becoming gravely ill.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized government troops fleeing El Fasher to come into Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

The individual Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a driver from Sennar within central Sudan, barely avoided execution following his capture by three camel-riding militiamen close to Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off using a knife,” he informs, showing his arm, which one of the fighters hit using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother was my colleague – and begged them not to kill me. There were 18 of us who departed El Fasher collectively, but only eight made it to Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub states he saw 22 bodies in proximity to what he termed a deceptive well utilized by RSF forces and allied militias between Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he explains. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they reach it, the militias are waiting. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and took the bodies away to conceal them.”

Another nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital following Sunday's assault reported RSF militiamen penetrated through one gate and began shooting at patients in the emergency ward, causing at least eight fatalities. “We ran out via another entrance, but they hit me on the head with a rifle,” he recounts.

In a video statement on Wednesday, the head of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said that any soldier or commander who infringed upon the rights of any person” would be held accountable.

Several people who got away from El Fasher passed hours concealing themselves near military artillery prior to escaping westward during nighttime. Families already uprooted originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement were compelled to relocate again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before finally moving toward Tawila.

People apprehended by RSF forces in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour