🔗 Share this article

A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been working as a healthcare worker over a three-year period at El Fasher South hospital when the city was seized last Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was busy treating patients, among them an older female patient requiring a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“Six injured soldiers were killed plus civilian patients in their beds – among them female victims,” she says. “I don’t know what happened for my remaining patients. I had to run when they stormed the hospital.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and thigh during the RSF's seizure of the closeby army headquarters. She escaped from the city and walked for a day, injured and without food, to get to the settlement of Garney. “Along the route, they took my phone and money,” she says. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – featuring females and minors – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to get to the settlement of Tawila located in northern Darfur after running from El Fasher, which was captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

This settlement, around 55 kilometers to the west from El Fasher, remains under the authority by the SLA faction led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

Last Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – blamed the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. The UN reported that visual evidence showed depicting dozens of weaponless men being shot or lying dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Background Context

Fighting broke out within Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as a growing contest for power between the two main factions of the armed forces leadership ultimately became violent.

On one side exist the official Sudanese army, who remain broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Against him are the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a collection of militias who follow the former warlord General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the former dictatorial ruler Bashir's regime as an Arab anti-rebellion militia called the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with widespread atrocities. In 2013, Bashir reformed the faction into the Rapid Support Forces, sending them to suppress a new uprising in South Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in contemporary history, as per UN representatives. It has created the world’s worst displacement crisis, forcing more than 10 million persons inside the nation plus 4 million who escaped into neighbouring countries, putting mounting pressure on both Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Per observer reports, many additional civilians continue to be held by the RSF and allied militias in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from Sudan's armed forces, the collaborative forces and other armed groups that were previously aligned with the military. They are apparently detained because they cannot afford ransom demands ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), per those who escaped who arrived in Tawila. Those unable to pay remain imprisoned for several days, and sometimes released only after developing critical health conditions.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed military personnel escaping El Fasher to enter Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

The individual Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a chauffeur from Sennar in central Sudan, closely avoided death following his capture by three camel-riding militiamen in the Garney vicinity.

“They planned to decapitate me with a blade,” he informs, showing his arm, which one of the fighters hit using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother had worked with me – and urged them not to execute me. We were 18 people who departed El Fasher collectively, but only eight made it to Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub reports he observed 22 corpses in proximity to what he termed a deceptive well utilized by RSF forces and partner armed groups in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he comments. “People walk all day without water, and when they get to it, the armed groups lie in wait. They murdered 22 males at that location and removed the corpses to hide them.”

A different medical worker who fled the El Fasher South medical facility following Sunday's assault reported RSF militiamen penetrated using one doorway and began shooting at patients in the ER section, causing at least eight fatalities. “We fled through another gate, however they struck my head using a rifle,” he recounts.

Through a video declaration on Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, declared that any fighter or officer who had “violated the right of any civilian would be punished.

Several people who got away El Fasher spent hours taking cover close to army artillery positions 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 before eventually heading for Tawila.

Individuals seized by the RSF in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour