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

The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a nurse over a three-year period in the El Fasher South medical facility as the city became seized last Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was occupied with patient care, featuring one senior woman requiring a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“They murdered six wounded military personnel along with 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, 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and her thigh as RSF fighters took control of the nearby military headquarters. She escaped from the city and traveled on foot for one day, injured and without food, to reach the town of Garney. “During the journey, they took my phone and money,” she says. “I ended up with nothing.”

More than 1,000 people – featuring females and minors – walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila in North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which was seized after a year-and-a-half-long siege.

The town of Tawila, approximately 34 miles westward away from El Fasher, remains under the authority of the SLA-AW group 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 with murdering over 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. The UN reported that visual evidence showed featuring numerous unarmed males being shot or lying dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”

Contextual Information

Hostilities commenced within Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as an escalating power struggle between the two main factions within the military government eventually resulted in fatalities.

Among the combatants stand the Sudanese military forces, which maintain general loyalty to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Challenging him stand the paramilitary forces belonging to the RSF, a collection of militias that obey the former warlord General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir himself as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with widespread atrocities. In 2013, Bashir transformed the group to become the RSF, using them to quell a recent insurrection within South Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history”, as per UN representatives. It has produced the world’s worst displacement crisis, scattering more than 10 million people within the country along with 4 million refugees to bordering states, creating increasing strain on both Chad and South Sudan.

Present Circumstances

Based on eyewitness accounts, many additional civilians continue to be held by the RSF and allied militias within Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from Sudan's armed forces, the Joint Forces and other armed groups that had been fighting alongside the army. They are reportedly being held as they lack funds for ransom requests ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who reached Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been detained for days, and occasionally released only after becoming gravely ill.

The SLA-AW has apparently permitted army soldiers running from El Fasher to enter Tawila if they relinquish their arms.

The individual Adam Yagoub, 28, a motorist originating from Sennar in central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed following his capture by three camel-riding militiamen in the Garney vicinity.

“They intended to behead me using a knife,” he informs, showing his arm, which one militant assaulted with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother was my colleague – and urged them not to execute me. We were 18 people who departed El Fasher collectively, however just eight arrived in Tawila. I think the others are dead.”

Yagoub says he witnessed 22 deceased individuals close to what he described as a “fake well” 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 upon arriving there, the militias are waiting. They murdered 22 males at that location and removed the corpses to hide them.”

A different medical worker who fled the El Fasher South medical facility after the attack on Sunday stated RSF combatants came in through one gate and began shooting at patients in the emergency ward, murdering no less than eight. “We escaped through a different gate, but they hit me on the head with a firearm,” he states.

Via a recorded message last Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, declared that any fighter or commander who infringed upon the rights of any person” would be held accountable.

Several people who got away from El Fasher passed hours taking cover close to army artillery positions prior to escaping westward during nighttime. Previously displaced households from the city’s Abu Shouk camp were forced to move again, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before finally moving toward Tawila.

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