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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been serving as a nurse over a three-year period within the South El Fasher hospital as the city became taken over on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was actively caring for the sick, among them an older female patient who needed a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“They killed six wounded soldiers plus civilian patients in their beds – some of them women,” she states. “I don’t know what happened regarding my other patients. I needed to escape as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and upper leg during the RSF's seizure of the nearby military headquarters. She fled the city and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, hurt and lacking sustenance, to reach the town of Garney. “Along the route, they seized my mobile and money,” she explains. “I was left with nothing.”

More than 1,000 people – comprising women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to arrive at Tawila town within North 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 away from El Fasher, remains under the authority of the Sudan Liberation Army faction led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

On Tuesday, the Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – accused the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants following the urban center's takeover. The UN reported there were videos showing “dozens of unarmed men being shot or lying dead, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Historical Background

Fighting broke out in Sudan's capital during April of 2023 when an intensifying power struggle between the two main factions within the military government finally turned deadly.

From one perspective are the Sudanese armed forces, that stay mostly faithful to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Opposing him are the paramilitaries belonging to the RSF, an assembly of militia groups which support the ex-warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir as an Arab counterinsurgency militia called the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with extensive brutalities. In 2013, Bashir reformed the faction to become the RSF, deploying them to crush a recent insurrection in southern Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history”, based on UN statements. It has generated the world’s worst displacement crisis, dispersing over 10 million individuals internally and 4 million who have fled to adjacent nations, generating growing stress upon Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

Per observer reports, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and partner militias in the Garney area, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Several are previous army members from Sudan's armed forces, the Joint Forces and other armed groups that had been fighting alongside the army. Reports indicate they're imprisoned as they lack funds for ransom requests of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. People who cannot afford payment remain imprisoned for several days, and occasionally let go solely after developing critical health conditions.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized military personnel escaping El Fasher to come into Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

Adam Yagoub, 28, a chauffeur from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, closely avoided death subsequent to his seizure by three armed men mounted on camels near Garney.

“They planned to decapitate me using a knife,” he recounts, displaying his arm, that one combatant struck using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Afterward one remembered me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. Our group contained 18 individuals who exited El Fasher as a group, but only eight made it to Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies near what he called a fraudulent water source used by the RSF and partner armed groups between Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he says. “People walk all day without water, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They killed 22 men there and removed the corpses to obscure them.”

Another nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital following Sunday's assault stated RSF combatants came in using one doorway and commenced firing upon patients in the emergency ward, murdering no less than eight. “We fled through another gate, yet they assaulted my head with a rifle,” he says.

Via a recorded message last Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, declared that any fighter or official who breached the rights of any person” would be held accountable.

Many of those who escaped El Fasher utilized hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit before running west under cover of darkness. Previously displaced households originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement were compelled to relocate again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

Those captured by the RSF in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour