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Nawal Khalil had been working as a medical volunteer for three years in the El Fasher South medical facility when the city was seized last Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was occupied with patient care, including an elderly woman who needed a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel and civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she says. “I am unaware of the fate to my other patients. I was forced to flee after they raided the medical facility.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and thigh during the RSF's seizure of the nearby military headquarters. She ran from the urban area and walked for a day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to reach the town of Garney. “On the way, they seized my mobile and cash,” she says. “I was left with nothing.”

More than 1,000 people – comprising women and children – traveled on foot for two days to reach the town of Tawila in North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which fell under control after an 18-month siege.

This settlement, about 34 miles (55km) west of El Fasher, remains under the authority of the SLA-AW group commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

This past Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – blamed the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. The UN said there were videos showing “dozens of unarmed men being shot or lying dead, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Historical Background

Conflict erupted in Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as an escalating power struggle between the two main factions of the military regime eventually resulted in fatalities.

From one perspective are the Sudanese armed forces, who remain broadly loyal towards General al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Challenging him stand the paramilitary forces belonging to the RSF, a collection of militias that obey the former warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir himself as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with widespread atrocities. Back in 2013, Bashir transformed the group to become the RSF, sending them to suppress a recent insurrection within South Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in contemporary history, based on UN statements. It has created the world’s worst displacement crisis, scattering more than 10 million people within the country along with 4 million refugees to bordering states, creating increasing strain upon Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Per observer reports, numerous more non-combatants remain trapped by the RSF and allied militias in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Several are previous army members from the Sudanese army, the collaborative forces and other militant organizations that had been fighting alongside the army. They are reportedly being held as they lack funds for ransom requests of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who arrived in Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been detained for days, and occasionally freed only when becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed government troops fleeing El Fasher to come into Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

Adam Yagoub, 28, a chauffeur from Sennar within central Sudan, barely avoided execution after being captured by three camel-riding militiamen in the Garney vicinity.

“They wanted to cut my head off using a knife,” he informs, displaying his arm, which one of the fighters hit using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother was my colleague – and begged them not to kill me. Our group contained 18 individuals who left El Fasher together, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies close to what he described as a deceptive well used by the RSF and partner armed groups along the Garney-Tawila route. “This is an ambush,” he explains. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they reach it, the armed groups lie in wait. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and carried the bodies off to obscure them.”

Another nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive reported RSF militiamen penetrated via one entrance and commenced firing upon patients in the emergency ward, murdering no less than eight. “We ran out via another entrance, yet they assaulted my head using a rifle,” he says.

Via a recorded message last Wednesday, the head of the RSF, Gen 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.

Numerous individuals who fled El Fasher utilized hours concealing themselves near military artillery before running west during nighttime. Previously displaced households from Abu Shouk camp in the city were forced to move again, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before finally moving toward Tawila.

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