‘They killed civilians in their beds’: chaos and brutality prevail following capture of El Fasher

Nawal Khalil had been working as a nurse for three years within the South El Fasher hospital as the city became taken over on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was occupied with patient care, featuring one senior woman who needed a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.

“Six injured soldiers were killed along with civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she recounts. “I am unaware of the fate to my other patients. I had to run after they raided the medical facility.”

Khalil, aged 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and her thigh as RSF fighters took control of the closeby army headquarters. She escaped from the city and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, wounded and without nourishment, to arrive at Garney town. “Along the route, they confiscated my phone and cash,” she says. “I ended up with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – featuring females and minors – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to arrive at Tawila town within North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was seized following an 18-month blockade.

The town of Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the west from El Fasher, is under the control by the SLA faction led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).

Last Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – accused the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. The UN said there were videos depicting dozens of weaponless men who were shot or found dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Background Context

Fighting broke out in Khartoum during April of 2023 as a growing contest for power among the two primary factions within the military government finally turned deadly.

From one perspective are the Sudanese armed forces, which maintain general loyalty to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Opposing him exist the irregular troops of the RSF paramilitary group, an assembly of militia groups which support the ex-warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force named the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with extensive brutalities. Back in 2013, Bashir reformed the faction to become the RSF, deploying them to crush a fresh rebellion within South Darfur.

The fighting has thrown Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in recent history”, as per UN representatives. It has produced the globe's most severe displacement emergency, scattering more than 10 million people within the country along with 4 million refugees to bordering states, generating growing stress on Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Based on eyewitness accounts, thousands more civilians stay confined by RSF forces and allied militias in Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from the Sudanese army, the collaborative forces plus additional armed factions which had been combatting together with the army. They are apparently detained as they lack funds for ransom requests of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), per those who escaped who reached Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying remain imprisoned for several days, and occasionally let go solely after falling seriously ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted military personnel escaping El Fasher to enter Tawila provided they give up their weapons.

The individual Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a chauffeur from Sennar within central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed after being captured by three armed men mounted on camels in the Garney vicinity.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a knife,” he informs, exhibiting his limb, which one of the fighters hit 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. We were 18 people who left El Fasher together, but only eight made it to Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub reports he witnessed 22 deceased individuals near what he called a deceptive well employed by the RSF and partner armed groups in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he says. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and upon arriving there, the militiamen await. They murdered 22 males at that location and carried the bodies off to hide them.”

Another nurse who escaped El Fasher South hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive said RSF fighters entered through one gate and began shooting at patients within the emergency department, killing at least eight. “We escaped through a different gate, yet they assaulted my head using a rifle,” he says.

Through a video declaration last Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or officer who had “violated the right of any individual would face consequences.

Numerous individuals who fled from El Fasher passed hours taking cover close to army artillery positions prior to escaping westward during nighttime. Already displaced families originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement had to displace once more, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before eventually heading for Tawila.

People apprehended by RSF forces in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour