‘Civilians were slain in their beds’: disorder and violence reign after capture of El Fasher

The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been working as a healthcare worker for three years within the South El Fasher hospital as the city became seized last Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was busy treating patients, including an elderly woman requiring a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel and civilians in their beds – including some women,” she says. “The outcome remains unknown for my remaining patients. I had to run when they stormed the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 27, was shot in the right foot and thigh as RSF fighters took control of the nearby military headquarters. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to get to the settlement of Garney. “During the journey, they took my phone and cash,” she describes. “I was left with nothing.”

Over a thousand individuals – including women and children – traveled on foot for two days to reach the town of Tawila within North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which was captured after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

The town of Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the west away from El Fasher, is under the control by the SLA faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.

On Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – accused the RSF for slaughtering in excess of 2,000 non-combatants since the fall of the city. The UN reported that footage existed showing “dozens of unarmed men either being shot or deceased, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Historical Background

Conflict erupted in Khartoum during April of 2023 when an intensifying power struggle between the two main factions within the military government eventually resulted in fatalities.

On one side exist the official Sudanese army, that stay mostly faithful to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Against him are the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an assembly of militia groups who follow the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force known as the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with widespread atrocities. Back in 2013, Bashir reformed the faction to become the RSF, sending them to suppress a new uprising in southern Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history”, as per UN representatives. It has created the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, dispersing over 10 million individuals inside the nation plus 4 million who escaped to bordering states, creating increasing strain on both Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

According to witnesses, numerous more non-combatants remain trapped by the RSF and associated armed groups within Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from Sudan's armed forces, the Joint Forces and other armed groups that were previously aligned with the military. Reports indicate they're imprisoned because they cannot afford extortion payments between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been held for multiple days, and sometimes released only after developing critical health conditions.

Reports suggest the SLA-AW has authorized government troops fleeing El Fasher to enter Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a driver from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, narrowly escaped being killed subsequent to his seizure by three armed men mounted on camels in the Garney vicinity.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a blade,” he informs, showing his arm, which one militant assaulted with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother was my colleague – and begged them not to kill me. Our group contained 18 individuals who departed El Fasher collectively, 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 “fake well” employed by the RSF and associated militias in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he says. “Persons journey daily without hydration, 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.”

Another 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, causing at least eight fatalities. “We ran out via another entrance, but they hit me on the head using a rifle,” he states.

Through a video declaration last Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said that any soldier or official who breached the rights of any individual would face consequences.

Several people who got away from El Fasher passed hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit prior to escaping westward during nighttime. Families already uprooted from the city’s Abu Shouk camp were compelled to relocate again, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before finally moving toward Tawila.

Individuals seized by the RSF within Garney reportedly received {water mixed with flour|flour