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The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been working as a medical volunteer over a three-year period at El Fasher South hospital after the city fell captured on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was busy treating patients, including an elderly woman requiring a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“Six injured soldiers were killed along with civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she recounts. “I don’t know what happened for my remaining patients. I needed to escape after they raided the medical facility.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, was shot in the right foot and her thigh as RSF fighters took control of the closeby army headquarters. She ran from the urban area and traveled on foot for one day, wounded and without nourishment, to arrive at Garney town. “Along the route, they confiscated my phone and money,” she explains. “I was left with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – comprising women and children – traveled on foot for two days to arrive at Tawila town located in northern Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was seized after an 18-month siege.

The town of Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the 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 – which partner with Sudan's military – charged the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants after the city's capture. United Nations officials stated there were videos depicting dozens of weaponless men being shot or lying dead, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Background Context

Fighting broke out in Sudan's capital during April of 2023 as an escalating power struggle among the two primary factions of the military regime finally turned deadly.

From one perspective are the Sudanese armed forces, which maintain general loyalty towards General al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Against him are the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an assembly of militia groups which support the ex-warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir as an Arab anti-rebellion militia known as the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with massive human rights violations. Back in 2013, Bashir converted the organization to become the RSF, deploying them to crush a recent insurrection in southern Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in contemporary history, as per UN representatives. It has generated the globe's most severe displacement emergency, scattering more than 10 million people within the country along with 4 million refugees into neighbouring countries, putting mounting pressure on Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

Based on eyewitness accounts, many additional civilians continue to be held by the RSF and associated armed groups in the Garney area, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers belonging to the Sudanese military, the allied Joint Forces and other militant organizations which had been combatting together with the army. Reports indicate they're imprisoned as they lack funds for extortion payments between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been held for multiple days, and in some cases freed only when becoming gravely ill.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized military personnel escaping El Fasher to access Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, 28, a motorist originating from Sennar within central Sudan, barely avoided execution subsequent to his seizure by three militiamen on camels in the Garney vicinity.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a knife,” he informs, displaying his arm, which one militant assaulted using an AK-47 rifle butt. “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, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies near what he called a “fake well” employed by the RSF and partner armed groups between Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he explains. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and upon arriving there, the militias are waiting. They murdered 22 males at that location and carried the bodies off to conceal them.”

An additional nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive said RSF fighters entered through one gate and opened fire on patients within the emergency department, killing at least eight. “We ran out via another entrance, however they struck my head using a rifle,” he recounts.

Via a recorded message last Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or commander who infringed upon the rights 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 fleeing west during nighttime. Previously displaced households originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement had to displace once more, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

People apprehended by RSF forces in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour