‘Civilians were slain in their beds’: chaos and brutality dominate after taking of El Fasher

A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been serving as a nurse for the past three years within the South El Fasher hospital after the city fell seized last Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was occupied with patient care, among them an older female patient requiring a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“Six injured soldiers were killed and civilians in their beds – including some women,” she recounts. “I don’t know what happened to my other patients. I was forced to flee as they invaded the hospital.”

The 27-year-old Khalil, was shot in the right foot and upper leg as RSF fighters took control of the adjacent military command center. She escaped from the city and walked for a day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to arrive at Garney town. “During the journey, they took my phone and money,” she explains. “I ended up with nothing.”

More than 1,000 people – comprising women and children – traveled on foot for two days to reach the town of Tawila located in northern Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was captured following an 18-month blockade.

This settlement, approximately 34 miles westward from El Fasher, remains under the authority by the SLA faction led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

This past Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – blamed the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. United Nations officials stated that visual evidence showed depicting dozens of weaponless men either being shot or deceased, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Contextual Information

Conflict erupted in Khartoum on 15 April 2023 when an intensifying power struggle involving the two key groups of the military regime finally turned deadly.

Among the combatants exist the official Sudanese army, who remain broadly loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Opposing him stand the paramilitary forces belonging to the RSF, a collection of militias that obey the former warlord General Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab anti-rebellion militia named the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with massive human rights violations. In 2013, Bashir reformed the faction to become the RSF, using them to quell a recent insurrection in southern Darfur.

The conflict has plunged Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in modern times, according to UN officials. It has created the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, forcing more than 10 million persons within the country and 4 million who have fled into neighbouring countries, putting mounting pressure upon Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

According to witnesses, thousands more civilians remain trapped by the RSF and allied militias within Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from the Sudanese army, the collaborative forces and other militant organizations that had been fighting alongside the army. Reports indicate they're imprisoned because they cannot afford extortion payments ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been detained for days, and in some cases freed only when falling seriously ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted army soldiers running from El Fasher to enter Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.

Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a motorist originating from Sennar within central Sudan, closely avoided death following his capture by three militiamen on camels near Garney.

“They planned to decapitate me with a knife,” he recounts, exhibiting his limb, which one militant assaulted with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother had worked with me – and urged them not to execute me. There were 18 of us who left El Fasher together, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub states he saw 22 bodies in proximity to what he termed a deceptive well employed by the RSF and partner armed groups in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he comments. “People walk all day without water, and when they reach it, the armed groups lie in wait. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and took the bodies away to conceal them.”

An additional nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital following Sunday's assault reported RSF militiamen penetrated using one doorway and commenced firing upon patients within the emergency department, killing at least eight. “We fled through another gate, however they struck my head with a firearm,” he states.

Through a video declaration last Wednesday, the RSF commander, General Dagalo, called Hemedti, declared that any fighter or officer who had “violated the right of any civilian would be punished.

Many of those who escaped El Fasher spent hours taking cover close to army artillery positions prior to escaping westward under cover of darkness. Previously displaced households originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement had to displace once more, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before eventually heading for Tawila.

Those captured by the RSF in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour