‘They murdered civilians while they slept’: chaos and brutality prevail following taking of El Fasher

A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a nurse over a three-year period within the South El Fasher hospital after the city fell taken over on Sunday by the RSF fighters. She was busy treating patients, including an elderly woman in need of a transfusion, when the offensive started.

“Six injured soldiers were killed plus civilian patients in their beds – among them female victims,” she recounts. “The outcome remains unknown 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 during the RSF's seizure of the closeby army headquarters. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, wounded and without nourishment, to arrive at Garney town. “During the journey, they seized my mobile and cash,” she says. “I possessed nothing remaining.”

More than 1,000 people – comprising women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to arrive at Tawila town within North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was captured after an 18-month siege.

This settlement, 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).

This past Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – charged the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. The UN reported that footage existed featuring numerous unarmed males being shot or lying dead, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Contextual Information

Conflict erupted within Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as an escalating power struggle between the two main factions of the armed forces leadership finally turned deadly.

On one side are the Sudanese armed forces, who remain broadly loyal towards General al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Against him stand the paramilitary forces belonging to the RSF, a gathering of armed factions which support the ex-warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was originally established by the ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab counterinsurgency militia named the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with extensive brutalities. During 2013, Bashir converted the organization to become the RSF, sending them to suppress a recent insurrection in South Darfur.

The fighting has thrown Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in modern times, according to UN officials. It has created the world’s worst displacement crisis, scattering more than 10 million people internally plus 4 million who escaped to adjacent nations, creating increasing strain upon Chad and South Sudan.

Current Situation Updates

According to witnesses, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and associated armed groups in Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from Sudan's armed forces, the allied Joint Forces plus additional armed factions that had been fighting alongside the army. They are reportedly being held because they cannot afford extortion payments between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), based on survivor accounts who arrived in Tawila. Those unable to pay have been held for multiple days, and in some cases freed only when falling seriously ill.

The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed military personnel escaping El Fasher to come into Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

The individual Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a motorist originating from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, closely avoided death following his capture by three armed men mounted on camels close to Garney.

“They intended to behead me using a knife,” he informs, showing his arm, which one of the fighters hit with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Subsequently one identified me – his brother had worked with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. We were 18 people who exited El Fasher as a group, but only eight made it to Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub reports he observed 22 corpses near what he called a “fake well” used by the RSF and allied militias between Garney and Tawila. “It’s 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 removed the corpses to obscure them.”

An additional nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility subsequent to Sunday's offensive reported RSF militiamen penetrated via one entrance and opened fire on patients in the ER section, killing at least eight. “We ran out via another entrance, however they struck my head with a firearm,” he says.

Via a recorded message this past Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said that any soldier or official who breached the rights of any individual would face consequences.

Many of those who escaped El Fasher utilized hours taking cover close to army artillery positions before running west during nighttime. Already displaced families from Abu Shouk camp in the city had to displace once more, 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