🔗 Share this article

A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been volunteering 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, among them an older female patient in need of a transfusion, when the attack began.

“They killed six wounded soldiers along with civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she recounts. “The outcome remains unknown for my remaining patients. I was forced to flee after they raided the medical facility.”

Khalil, aged 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and upper leg during the RSF's seizure of the closeby army headquarters. She escaped from the city and traveled on foot for one day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to arrive at Garney town. “Along the route, they took my phone and currency,” she explains. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

More than 1,000 people – featuring females and minors – walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila located in northern Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was seized following an 18-month blockade.

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

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. United Nations officials stated that visual evidence showed featuring numerous unarmed males who were shot or found dead, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Historical Background

Conflict erupted in Khartoum during April of 2023 as a growing contest for power involving the two key groups of the armed forces leadership finally turned deadly.

Among the combatants exist the official Sudanese army, who remain broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Against him exist the irregular troops of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a collection of militias which support the ex-warlord General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the previous authoritarian leader Bashir's regime as an Arab anti-rebellion militia called the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with widespread atrocities. During 2013, Bashir converted the organization to become the RSF, using them to quell a fresh rebellion in southern Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in contemporary history, as per UN representatives. It has produced the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, dispersing over 10 million individuals inside the nation along with 4 million refugees to bordering states, generating growing stress on both Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Per observer reports, numerous more non-combatants remain trapped by the RSF and partner militias in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel belonging to the Sudanese military, the collaborative forces plus additional armed factions which had been combatting together with the army. They are reportedly being held since they cannot pay ransom demands of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), according to survivors who reached Tawila. Those unable to pay remain imprisoned for several days, and in some cases freed only when falling seriously ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted government troops fleeing El Fasher to come into Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

Adam Yagoub, 28, a chauffeur from Sennar within central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed following his capture by three militiamen on camels close to Garney.

“They intended to behead me with a blade,” he recounts, exhibiting his limb, which one militant assaulted with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother had worked with me – and begged them not to kill me. There were 18 of us who departed El Fasher collectively, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub states he saw 22 bodies near what he called a “fake well” utilized by RSF forces and associated militias between Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he says. “People walk all day without water, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They killed 22 men there and carried the bodies off to conceal them.”

An additional nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility after the attack on Sunday stated RSF combatants came in through one gate and began shooting at patients in the ER section, murdering no less than eight. “We escaped through a different gate, yet they assaulted my head with a firearm,” he recounts.

Via a recorded message 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.

Several people who got away El Fasher utilized hours concealing themselves near military artillery prior to escaping westward under darkness's protection. Families already uprooted from Abu Shouk camp in the city were compelled to relocate again, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area prior to ultimately traveling to Tawila.

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