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Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a nurse for three years at El Fasher South hospital after the city fell taken over on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was occupied with patient care, including an elderly woman who needed a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel and civilians in their beds – including some women,” she recounts. “The outcome remains unknown for my remaining patients. I was forced to flee after they raided the medical facility.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, was shot in the right foot and thigh as RSF fighters took control of the closeby army headquarters. She escaped from the city and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, wounded and without nourishment, to get to the settlement of Garney. “During the journey, they seized my mobile and currency,” she describes. “I was left with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – 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 captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

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

Last Tuesday, the Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – charged the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. The UN said that footage existed featuring numerous unarmed males who were shot or found dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Background Context

Conflict erupted in Khartoum back on April 15, 2023 when an intensifying power struggle between the two main factions within the military government finally turned deadly.

On one side stand the Sudanese military forces, that stay mostly faithful towards General al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Against him exist the irregular troops 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 previous authoritarian leader Bashir's regime as an Arab counterinsurgency militia named the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with extensive brutalities. Back in 2013, Bashir transformed the group into the RSF, sending them to suppress a fresh rebellion in southern Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in modern times, according to UN officials. It has created the globe's most severe displacement emergency, scattering more than 10 million people inside the nation plus 4 million who escaped to adjacent nations, generating growing stress on Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

Based on eyewitness accounts, numerous more non-combatants remain trapped by the RSF and associated armed groups within Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from the Sudanese army, the Joint Forces and other militant organizations that were previously aligned with the military. Reports indicate they're imprisoned because they cannot afford extortion payments between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), based on survivor accounts who made it to Tawila. Those unable to pay have been held for multiple days, and in some cases released only after developing critical health conditions.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized army soldiers running from El Fasher to come into Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

A man named Adam Yagoub, 28, a driver from Sennar in central Sudan, barely avoided execution subsequent to his seizure by three camel-riding militiamen near Garney.

“They intended to behead me with a blade,” he tells, displaying his arm, which one of the fighters hit with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Subsequently one identified me – his brother had worked with me – and begged them not to kill me. There were 18 of us who exited El Fasher as a group, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub states he saw 22 bodies near what he called a fraudulent water source utilized by RSF forces and allied militias between Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he says. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they reach it, the militias are waiting. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and carried the bodies off to conceal them.”

A different medical worker who fled the El Fasher South medical facility following Sunday's assault stated RSF combatants came in through one gate and opened fire on patients in the emergency ward, killing at least eight. “We escaped through a different gate, however they struck my head with a firearm,” he says.

Through a video declaration last Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said that any soldier or officer who had “violated the right of any person” would be held accountable.

Many of those who escaped from El Fasher passed hours taking cover close to army artillery positions before running west under cover of darkness. Previously displaced households 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.

Those captured by the RSF in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour