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Nawal Khalil had been working as a medical volunteer for three years within the South El Fasher hospital after the city fell taken over on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was actively caring for the sick, featuring one senior woman who needed a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“They killed six wounded soldiers plus civilian patients in their beds – including some women,” she states. “I don’t know what happened for my remaining patients. I had to run as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, 27, was shot in the right foot and upper leg while RSF combatants gained control of the nearby military headquarters. She ran from the urban area and walked for a day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to get to the settlement of Garney. “Along the route, they seized my mobile and cash,” she says. “I ended up with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – including women and children – walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila within North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which fell under control after an 18-month siege.

This settlement, around 55 kilometers to the west from El Fasher, remains under the authority of the SLA-AW group commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

Last Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – accused the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians following the urban center's takeover. The UN reported that visual evidence showed depicting dozens of weaponless men being shot or lying dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Background Context

Hostilities commenced in Khartoum back on April 15, 2023 as a growing contest for power involving the two key groups of the military regime finally turned deadly.

On one side are the Sudanese armed forces, who remain broadly loyal towards General al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Challenging him are the paramilitaries of the RSF paramilitary group, an assembly of militia groups that obey the former warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir as an Arab anti-rebellion militia known as the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with massive human rights violations. Back in 2013, Bashir reformed the faction into the Rapid Support Forces, using them to quell a recent insurrection within South Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in contemporary history, based on UN statements. It has produced the world’s worst displacement crisis, scattering more than 10 million people internally along with 4 million refugees into neighbouring countries, putting mounting pressure upon Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

According to witnesses, numerous more non-combatants remain trapped by the RSF and allied militias within Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from Sudan's armed forces, the Joint Forces and other armed groups that had been fighting alongside the army. They are reportedly being held as they lack funds for ransom demands ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), according to survivors who made it to Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been held for multiple days, and in some cases released only after falling seriously ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted army soldiers running from El Fasher to access Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

A man named Adam Yagoub, 28, a driver from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, closely avoided death after being captured by three camel-riding militiamen in the Garney vicinity.

“They intended to behead me with a knife,” he tells, showing his arm, which one militant assaulted with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother was my colleague – and pleaded with them to spare me. There were 18 of us who exited El Fasher as a group, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies in proximity to what he termed a fraudulent water source employed by the RSF and associated militias in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he comments. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and upon arriving there, the militias are waiting. They killed 22 men there and removed the corpses to obscure them.”

A different medical worker who ran from South El Fasher hospital after the attack on Sunday stated RSF combatants came in using one doorway and commenced firing upon patients in the ER section, murdering no less than eight. “We escaped through a different gate, however they struck my head with a rifle,” he states.

In a video statement this past Wednesday, the RSF commander, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, declared that any fighter or commander who infringed upon the rights of any civilian would be punished.

Numerous individuals who fled from El Fasher passed hours concealing themselves near military artillery before fleeing west under darkness's protection. Already displaced families from Abu Shouk camp in the city were forced to move again, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before finally moving toward Tawila.

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