‘They killed civilians in their beds’: chaos and brutality reign after taking of El Fasher

The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a nurse over a three-year period at El Fasher South hospital as the city became taken over on Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was busy treating patients, featuring one senior woman in need of a transfusion, when the offensive started.

“Six injured soldiers were killed and civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she says. “I am unaware of the fate for my remaining patients. I was forced to flee as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and upper leg as RSF fighters took control of the nearby military headquarters. She ran from the urban area and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, injured and without food, to reach the town of Garney. “Along the route, they seized my mobile and money,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – including women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to get to the settlement of Tawila within North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was captured following an 18-month blockade.

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

On Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – blamed the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. The UN said there were videos showing “dozens of unarmed men either being shot or deceased, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Background Context

Conflict erupted in Khartoum back on April 15, 2023 as a growing contest for power involving the two key groups of the military regime finally turned deadly.

From one perspective exist the official Sudanese army, that stay mostly faithful to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Challenging him are the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an assembly of militia groups that obey the former warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force known as the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with extensive brutalities. During 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the Rapid Support Forces, deploying them to crush a new uprising within South Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in contemporary history, based on UN statements. It has created the globe's most severe displacement emergency, scattering more than 10 million people inside the nation along with 4 million refugees to bordering states, generating growing stress on both Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

Based on eyewitness accounts, thousands more civilians continue to be held by the RSF and partner militias within Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Several are previous army members from Sudan's armed forces, the allied Joint Forces plus additional armed factions which had been combatting together with the army. They are apparently detained because they cannot afford extortion payments between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), based on survivor accounts who reached Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying remain imprisoned for several days, and occasionally freed only when developing critical health conditions.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted military personnel escaping El Fasher to access Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

The individual Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a driver from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, closely avoided death following his capture by three armed men mounted on camels close to Garney.

“They planned to decapitate me using a knife,” he tells, showing his arm, which one of the fighters hit using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Subsequently one identified me – his brother was my colleague – and pleaded with them to spare me. Our group contained 18 individuals who exited El Fasher as a group, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub reports he witnessed 22 deceased individuals in proximity to what he termed a “fake well” used by the RSF and allied militias between Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he says. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and removed the corpses to conceal them.”

An additional nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital after the attack on Sunday said RSF fighters entered through one gate and commenced firing upon patients within the emergency department, killing at least eight. “We escaped through a different gate, however they struck my head using a rifle,” he states.

Via a recorded message on Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, declared that any fighter or commander who infringed upon the rights of any person” would be held accountable.

Several people who got away El Fasher spent hours taking cover close to army artillery positions before running west under cover of darkness. Families already uprooted from Abu Shouk camp in the city had to displace once more, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before eventually heading for Tawila.

People apprehended by RSF forces in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour