‘They murdered civilians while they slept’: disorder and violence reign after capture of El Fasher

Nawal Khalil had been serving as a medical volunteer over a three-year period within the South El Fasher hospital as the city became seized last Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was actively caring for the sick, including an elderly woman in need of a transfusion, when the attack began.

“Six injured soldiers were killed along with civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she says. “I am unaware of the fate for my remaining patients. I had to run after they raided the medical facility.”

Khalil, aged 27, 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, wounded and without nourishment, to arrive at Garney town. “During the journey, they seized my mobile and money,” she describes. “I ended up with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – featuring females and minors – traveled on foot for two days to get to the settlement of Tawila in North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was captured following an 18-month blockade.

This settlement, around 55 kilometers to the west from El Fasher, is under the control of the Sudan Liberation Army faction led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

This past Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – accused the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians following the urban center's takeover. The UN said that footage existed depicting dozens of weaponless men either being shot or deceased, surrounded by RSF fighters.”

Contextual Information

Conflict erupted within Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as a growing contest for power involving the two key groups within the military government finally turned deadly.

Among the combatants are the Sudanese armed forces, who remain broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Opposing him are the paramilitaries of the RSF paramilitary group, a gathering of armed factions which support the ex-warlord General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir as an Arab counterinsurgency militia known as the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with massive human rights violations. Back in 2013, Bashir transformed the group into the RSF, using them to quell a new uprising in southern Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in contemporary history, according to UN officials. It has generated the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, scattering more than 10 million people internally and 4 million who have fled to adjacent nations, creating increasing strain upon Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

According to witnesses, thousands more civilians remain trapped by the RSF and partner militias within Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from the Sudanese army, the collaborative forces and other militant organizations which had been combatting together with the army. They are reportedly being held since they cannot pay extortion payments of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. Those unable to pay have been held for multiple days, and occasionally let go solely after becoming gravely ill.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized military personnel escaping El Fasher to come into Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a chauffeur from Sennar within central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed after being captured by three militiamen on camels near Garney.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a blade,” he recounts, showing his arm, which one of the fighters hit with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Then one of them recognised me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and begged them not to kill me. We were 18 people who left El Fasher together, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I assume the others died.”

Yagoub reports he saw 22 bodies in proximity to what he termed a fraudulent water source employed by the RSF and partner armed groups along the Garney-Tawila route. “This is an ambush,” he comments. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they reach it, the armed groups lie in wait. They murdered 22 males at that location and removed the corpses to conceal them.”

Another nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital following Sunday's assault stated RSF combatants came in through one gate and began shooting at patients in the emergency ward, murdering no less than eight. “We fled through another gate, yet they assaulted my head with a firearm,” he says.

Via a recorded message on Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as 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 spent hours taking cover close to army artillery positions before fleeing west during nighttime. Families already uprooted from Abu Shouk camp in the city were compelled to relocate again, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before eventually heading for Tawila.

People apprehended by RSF forces within Garney reportedly received {water mixed with flour|flour