‘They murdered civilians while they slept’: mayhem and cruelty dominate after taking of El Fasher

Nawal Khalil had been working as a healthcare worker over a three-year period at El Fasher South hospital as the city became seized last Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was actively caring for the sick, among them an older female patient in need of a transfusion, as the assault commenced.

“Six injured soldiers were killed plus civilian patients in their beds – among them female victims,” she says. “I don’t know what happened for my remaining patients. I had to run as they invaded the hospital.”

Khalil, aged 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and upper leg during the RSF's seizure of the nearby military headquarters. She ran from the urban area and traveled on foot for one day, injured and without food, to arrive at Garney town. “Along the route, they took my phone and currency,” she says. “I was left with nothing.”

In excess of 1,000 persons – featuring females and minors – walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila in North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was seized after an 18-month siege.

This settlement, about 34 miles (55km) west away from El Fasher, is under the control of the Sudan Liberation Army faction commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.

Last Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – which partner with Sudan's military – blamed the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. United Nations officials stated that footage existed featuring numerous unarmed males being shot or lying dead, encircled by RSF combatants.”

Contextual Information

Fighting broke out within Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as an escalating power struggle involving the two key groups within the military government finally turned deadly.

Among the combatants stand the Sudanese military forces, 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 that obey the former warlord General Dagalo, called Hemedti.

The RSF was initially founded by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab counterinsurgency militia named the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with extensive brutalities. Back in 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the RSF, deploying them to crush a fresh rebellion within South Darfur.

The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in contemporary history, according to UN officials. It has generated the world’s worst displacement crisis, scattering more than 10 million people inside the nation along with 4 million refugees to bordering states, creating increasing strain upon Chad and South Sudan.

Ongoing Developments

Per observer reports, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and partner militias within Garney, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from the Sudanese army, the collaborative forces plus additional armed factions that were previously aligned with the military. Reports indicate they're imprisoned since they cannot pay ransom demands between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), based on survivor accounts who made it to Tawila. Individuals incapable of paying have been detained for days, and occasionally freed only when falling seriously 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, twenty-eight years old, a driver from Sennar within central Sudan, barely avoided execution after being captured by three camel-riding militiamen in the Garney vicinity.

“They wanted to cut my head off with a blade,” he recounts, exhibiting his limb, which one of the fighters hit with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. “Afterward one remembered me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and begged them not to kill me. Our group contained 18 individuals who left El Fasher together, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I believe the remainder perished.”

Yagoub states he observed 22 corpses in proximity to what he termed a fraudulent water source employed by the RSF and partner armed groups between Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he comments. “People walk all day without water, and when they get to it, the militias are waiting. They murdered 22 males at that location and carried the bodies off 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 using one doorway and commenced firing upon patients in the ER section, murdering no less than eight. “We fled through another gate, however they struck my head with a firearm,” he recounts.

Via a recorded message this past Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said that any soldier or commander who infringed upon the rights of any person” would be held accountable.

Many of those who escaped El Fasher spent hours concealing themselves near military artillery prior to escaping westward under cover of darkness. Families already uprooted originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement were compelled to relocate again, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before finally moving toward Tawila.

Individuals seized by the RSF in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour