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A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a healthcare worker for three years in the El Fasher South medical facility after the city fell captured on Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was busy treating patients, including an elderly woman requiring a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“Six injured soldiers were killed along with civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she says. “I don’t know what happened to my other patients. I had to run as they invaded the hospital.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and thigh while RSF combatants gained control of the nearby military headquarters. She ran from the urban area and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, hurt and lacking sustenance, to reach the town of Garney. “On the way, they took my phone and money,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – including women and children – traveled on foot for two days to get to the settlement of Tawila in North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

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

Last Tuesday, the 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 depicting dozens of weaponless men who were shot or found dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Historical Background

Hostilities commenced within Khartoum on 15 April 2023 when an intensifying power struggle between the two main factions of the armed forces leadership ultimately became violent.

Among the combatants stand the Sudanese military forces, which maintain general loyalty to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Against him stand the paramilitary forces of the RSF paramilitary group, a gathering of armed factions that obey the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the ex-dictator Bashir's regime as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force named the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with widespread atrocities. In 2013, Bashir converted the organization to become the RSF, deploying them to crush a recent insurrection in South Darfur.

The fighting has thrown Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in contemporary history, as per UN representatives. It has created the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, dispersing over 10 million individuals internally plus 4 million who escaped into neighbouring countries, generating growing stress on both Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

Based on eyewitness accounts, many additional civilians continue to be held by the RSF and associated armed groups within Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Several are previous army members from the Sudanese army, the collaborative forces plus additional armed factions which had been combatting together with the army. They are apparently detained since they cannot pay extortion payments ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), according to survivors who arrived in Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been held for multiple days, and in some cases let go solely after becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted government troops fleeing El Fasher to come into Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a driver from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, closely avoided death following his capture by three militiamen on camels in the Garney vicinity.

“They intended to behead me using a knife,” he tells, exhibiting his limb, that one combatant struck with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother was my colleague – and urged them not to execute me. Our group contained 18 individuals who left El Fasher together, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub states he witnessed 22 deceased individuals near what he called a deceptive well used by the RSF and allied militias along the Garney-Tawila route. “It’s a trap,” he explains. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and took the bodies away to obscure them.”

Another nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive reported RSF militiamen penetrated via one entrance and commenced firing upon patients in the emergency ward, causing at least eight fatalities. “We escaped through a different gate, yet they assaulted my head using a rifle,” he recounts.

In a video statement on Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said that any soldier or officer who had “violated the right of any civilian would be punished.

Several people who got away El Fasher utilized hours taking cover close to army artillery positions before fleeing west under cover of darkness. Already displaced families originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement had to displace once more, 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