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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been serving as a nurse over a three-year period in the El Fasher South medical facility after the city fell taken over on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was actively caring for the sick, including an elderly woman requiring a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“Six injured soldiers were killed and civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she states. “I am unaware of the fate regarding my other patients. I had to run as they invaded the hospital.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and thigh while RSF combatants gained control of the adjacent military command center. She escaped from the city and walked for a day, wounded and without nourishment, to arrive at Garney town. “During the journey, they confiscated my phone and cash,” she says. “I was left with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – including women and children – walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila located in northern Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was seized after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

The town of Tawila, about 34 miles (55km) west of El Fasher, is governed by of the SLA-AW group led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

On Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – blamed the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants following the urban center's takeover. United Nations officials stated that visual evidence showed showing “dozens of unarmed men being shot or lying dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Contextual Information

Hostilities commenced in Khartoum during April of 2023 when an intensifying power struggle between the two main factions of the armed forces leadership finally turned deadly.

From one perspective stand the Sudanese military forces, which maintain general loyalty to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Challenging him exist the irregular troops belonging to the RSF, an assembly of militia groups which support the ex-warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab counterinsurgency militia called the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with massive human rights violations. In 2013, Bashir transformed the group into the RSF, deploying them to crush a recent insurrection in southern Darfur.

The fighting has thrown Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in contemporary history, as per UN representatives. It has produced the world’s worst displacement crisis, dispersing over 10 million individuals within the country along with 4 million refugees to bordering states, generating growing stress on Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Per observer reports, thousands more civilians remain trapped by the RSF and associated armed groups in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from the Sudanese army, the allied Joint Forces and other armed groups that had been fighting alongside the army. Reports indicate they're imprisoned as they lack funds for extortion payments ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), based on survivor accounts who arrived in Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been detained for days, and sometimes let go solely after becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed military personnel escaping El Fasher to enter Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

The individual Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a motorist originating from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, closely avoided death subsequent to his seizure by three camel-riding militiamen close to Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off using a knife,” he recounts, exhibiting his limb, which one of the fighters hit using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother had worked with me – and urged them not to execute 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 witnessed 22 deceased individuals near what he called a fraudulent water source utilized by RSF forces and associated militias along the Garney-Tawila route. “It’s a trap,” he explains. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and upon arriving there, the militiamen await. They killed 22 men there and took the bodies away to conceal them.”

A different medical worker who ran from South El Fasher hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive stated RSF combatants came in through one gate and commenced firing upon patients in the ER section, killing at least eight. “We ran out via another entrance, but they hit me on the head with a rifle,” he recounts.

Through a video declaration last Wednesday, the head of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or commander who infringed upon the rights of any individual would face consequences.

Numerous individuals who fled from El Fasher passed hours taking cover close to army artillery positions before fleeing west under darkness's protection. Already displaced families from Abu Shouk camp in the city were forced to move again, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before eventually heading for Tawila.

Individuals seized by the RSF in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour