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Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a healthcare worker for three years in the El Fasher South medical facility as the city became captured on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was actively caring for the sick, including an elderly woman who needed a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel along with civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she says. “I am unaware of the fate for my remaining patients. I needed to escape after they raided the medical facility.”

Khalil, aged 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and her thigh during the RSF's seizure of the closeby army headquarters. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to reach the town of Garney. “During the journey, they confiscated my phone and currency,” she explains. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – including women and children – traveled on foot for two days to reach the town of Tawila within North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was seized after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

This settlement, approximately 34 miles westward away from El Fasher, remains under the authority by the SLA faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

Last Tuesday, the Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – blamed the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. The UN reported that visual evidence showed depicting dozens of weaponless men being shot or lying dead, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Background Context

Fighting broke out within Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as an escalating power struggle among the two primary factions of the armed forces leadership eventually resulted in fatalities.

On one side exist the official Sudanese army, which maintain general loyalty towards General al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Opposing him are the paramilitaries belonging to the RSF, a gathering of armed factions that obey the former warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir himself as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with massive human rights violations. In 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the RSF, using them to quell a new uprising in South Darfur.

The fighting has thrown Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in contemporary history, as per UN representatives. It has produced the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, scattering more than 10 million people inside the nation plus 4 million who escaped into neighbouring countries, putting mounting pressure on Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Per observer reports, thousands more civilians stay confined by RSF forces and associated armed groups in Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Several are previous army members belonging to the Sudanese military, the collaborative forces and other armed groups that were previously aligned with the military. They are apparently detained as they lack funds for ransom requests ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), based on survivor accounts who made it to Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been detained for days, and sometimes let go solely after becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted government troops fleeing El Fasher to access Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a motorist originating from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, closely avoided death following his capture by three camel-riding militiamen near Garney.

“They planned to decapitate me using a knife,” he informs, displaying his arm, which one militant assaulted with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Subsequently one identified me – his brother had worked with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. There were 18 of us who departed El Fasher collectively, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub reports he observed 22 corpses in proximity to what he termed a “fake well” used by the RSF and allied militias in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he explains. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and upon arriving there, the armed groups lie in wait. They murdered 22 males at that location and removed the corpses to obscure them.”

A different medical worker who fled the El Fasher South medical facility subsequent to Sunday's offensive reported RSF militiamen penetrated through one gate and commenced firing upon patients in the emergency ward, causing at least eight fatalities. “We fled through another gate, yet they assaulted my head with a rifle,” he recounts.

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

Many of those who escaped El Fasher utilized hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit prior to escaping westward under darkness's protection. Previously displaced households from the city’s Abu Shouk camp had to displace once more, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before finally moving toward Tawila.

Individuals seized by the RSF in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour