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

“They murdered six wounded military personnel along with civilians in their beds – including some women,” she says. “I don’t know what happened for my remaining patients. I was forced to flee when they stormed the hospital.”

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 escaped from the city and traveled on foot for one day, wounded and without nourishment, to reach the town of Garney. “During the journey, they took my phone and currency,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – comprising women and children – traveled on foot for two days to get to the settlement of Tawila located in northern Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was captured following an 18-month blockade.

The town of Tawila, about 34 miles (55km) west of El Fasher, is under the control of the SLA-AW group under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

Last Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – blamed the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants after the city's capture. The UN reported there were videos depicting dozens of weaponless men being shot or lying dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Contextual Information

Conflict erupted within Khartoum on 15 April 2023 when an intensifying power struggle among the two primary factions of the armed forces leadership ultimately became violent.

On one side exist the official Sudanese army, who remain broadly loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Opposing him exist the irregular troops belonging to the RSF, a gathering of armed factions which support the ex-warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir himself as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with massive human rights violations. In 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the Rapid Support Forces, using them to quell a recent insurrection within South Darfur.

The fighting has thrown Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in contemporary history, based on UN statements. It has generated the globe's most severe displacement emergency, dispersing over 10 million individuals within the country plus 4 million who escaped to adjacent nations, generating growing stress upon Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

According to witnesses, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and allied militias within Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Several are previous army members from Sudan's armed forces, the collaborative forces plus additional armed factions that were previously aligned with the military. Reports indicate they're imprisoned because they cannot afford ransom requests between five and ten 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 sometimes released only after developing critical health conditions.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted government troops fleeing El Fasher to come into Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

A man named Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a chauffeur from Sennar within central Sudan, barely avoided execution after being captured by three militiamen on camels near Garney.

“They intended to behead me with a blade,” he informs, showing his arm, which one militant assaulted using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother had worked with me – and begged them not to kill me. We were 18 people who left El Fasher together, but only eight made it to Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub states he observed 22 corpses close to what he described as a fraudulent water source utilized by RSF forces and associated militias in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he says. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and upon arriving there, the armed groups lie in wait. They murdered 22 males at that location and took the bodies away to obscure them.”

An additional nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive said RSF fighters entered via one entrance and opened fire on patients in the ER section, killing at least eight. “We escaped through a different gate, but they hit me on the head with a firearm,” he recounts.

Via a recorded message last Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Dagalo, called Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or commander who infringed upon the rights of any civilian would be punished.

Numerous individuals who fled El Fasher spent hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit prior to escaping westward under cover of darkness. Already displaced families from Abu Shouk camp in the city were compelled to relocate again, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

People apprehended by RSF forces in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour