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Nawal Khalil had been serving as a nurse for the past three years in the El Fasher South medical facility as the city became seized last Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was occupied with patient care, including an elderly woman requiring a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“They killed six wounded soldiers plus civilian patients in their beds – some of them women,” she recounts. “I am unaware of the fate for my remaining patients. I had to run after they raided the medical facility.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, was shot in the right foot and her thigh while RSF combatants gained control of the nearby military headquarters. She fled the city and walked for a day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to get to the settlement of Garney. “On the way, they took my phone and currency,” she describes. “I was left with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – including women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to reach the town of Tawila located in northern Darfur after running from El Fasher, which was captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the west away from El Fasher, is under the control of the Sudan Liberation Army faction commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

This past Tuesday, the Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – accused the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants following the urban center's takeover. United Nations officials stated there were videos showing “dozens of unarmed men either being shot or deceased, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Background Context

Conflict erupted within Khartoum back on April 15, 2023 as a growing contest for power between the two main factions of the military regime eventually resulted in fatalities.

From one perspective exist the official Sudanese army, that stay mostly faithful to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Challenging him are the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an assembly of militia groups that obey the former warlord General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir as an Arab anti-rebellion militia named the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with massive human rights violations. During 2013, Bashir reformed the faction to become the RSF, sending them to suppress a recent insurrection in southern Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in modern times, according to UN officials. It has created the world’s worst displacement crisis, forcing more than 10 million persons inside the nation along with 4 million refugees to adjacent nations, putting mounting pressure on Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Per observer reports, numerous more non-combatants stay confined by RSF forces and partner militias in Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Several are previous army members from the Sudanese army, the allied Joint Forces plus additional armed factions which had been combatting together with the army. Reports indicate they're imprisoned since they cannot pay ransom demands ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who reached Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been detained for days, and in some cases let go solely after developing critical health conditions.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed military personnel escaping El Fasher to come into Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

A man named Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a chauffeur from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, closely avoided death after being captured by three militiamen on camels close to Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a blade,” he tells, exhibiting his limb, that one combatant struck with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Afterward one remembered me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. We were 18 people who exited El Fasher as a group, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub reports he witnessed 22 deceased individuals in proximity to what he termed a fraudulent water source utilized by RSF forces and partner armed groups in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he explains. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they get to it, the militias are waiting. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and removed the corpses to obscure them.”

A different medical worker who ran from South El Fasher hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive said RSF fighters entered using one doorway and opened fire on patients within the emergency department, murdering no less than eight. “We escaped through a different gate, yet they assaulted my head with a firearm,” he states.

Through a video declaration this past Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said that any soldier or officer who had “violated the right of any civilian would be punished.

Numerous individuals who fled from El Fasher passed hours taking cover close to army artillery positions before running west under cover of darkness. Already displaced families from the city’s Abu Shouk camp 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 apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour