‘Civilians were slain in their beds’: disorder and violence dominate after capture of El Fasher
Nawal Khalil had been working as a healthcare worker over a three-year period in the El Fasher South medical facility when the city was seized last Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was busy treating patients, including an elderly woman in need of a transfusion, as the assault commenced.
“Six injured soldiers were killed plus civilian patients in their beds – including some women,” she recounts. “The outcome remains unknown for my remaining patients. I needed to escape as they invaded the hospital.”
The 27-year-old Khalil, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and upper leg during the RSF's seizure of the closeby army headquarters. She escaped from the city and walked for a day, injured and without food, to arrive at Garney town. “Along the route, they confiscated my phone and currency,” she describes. “I ended up with nothing.”
In excess of 1,000 persons – featuring females and minors – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to reach the town of Tawila located in northern Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which fell under control after a year-and-a-half-long siege.
This settlement, about 34 miles (55km) west of El Fasher, remains under the authority of the Sudan Liberation Army faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.
Last Tuesday, the Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – blamed the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. The UN said there were videos featuring numerous unarmed males either being shot or deceased, with RSF militiamen around them.”
Historical Background
Fighting broke out within Khartoum back on April 15, 2023 as an escalating power struggle among the two primary factions of the armed forces leadership ultimately became violent.
On one side exist the official Sudanese army, that stay mostly faithful to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Against him stand the paramilitary forces of the RSF paramilitary group, an assembly of militia groups which support the ex-warlord General Dagalo, known as Hemedti.
The RSF was originally established by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir himself as an Arab anti-rebellion militia known as the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with widespread atrocities. In 2013, Bashir converted the organization into the RSF, using them to quell a new uprising in southern Darfur.
The conflict has plunged Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in modern times, based on UN statements. It has produced the globe's most severe displacement emergency, scattering more than 10 million people inside the nation along with 4 million refugees into neighbouring countries, putting mounting pressure on Chad and South Sudan.
Current Situation Updates
Based on eyewitness accounts, numerous more non-combatants stay confined by RSF forces and partner militias in the Garney area, in the southwestern direction from El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel belonging to the Sudanese military, the Joint Forces and other militant organizations that were previously aligned with the military. They are apparently detained because they cannot afford extortion payments between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), per those who escaped who arrived in Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been held for multiple days, and occasionally let go solely after developing critical health conditions.
The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed government troops fleeing El Fasher to access Tawila provided they give up their weapons.
The individual Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a chauffeur from Sennar within central Sudan, barely avoided execution subsequent to his seizure by three armed men mounted on camels in the Garney vicinity.
“They intended to behead me using a knife,” he recounts, exhibiting his limb, that one combatant struck using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Afterward one remembered me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and urged them not to execute me. We were 18 people who departed El Fasher collectively, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I think the others are dead.”
Yagoub says he observed 22 corpses in proximity to what he termed a deceptive well utilized by RSF forces and allied militias along the Garney-Tawila route. “This is an ambush,” he says. “Persons journey daily without hydration, and when they reach it, the armed groups lie in wait. 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 following Sunday's assault reported RSF militiamen penetrated using one doorway and began shooting at patients in the emergency ward, causing at least eight fatalities. “We escaped through a different gate, but they hit me on the head with a firearm,” he states.
Through a video declaration on Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, declared that any fighter or officer who had “violated the right of any person” would be held accountable.
Numerous individuals who fled from El Fasher passed hours concealing themselves near military artillery before fleeing west under darkness's protection. Previously displaced households from the city’s Abu Shouk camp were compelled to relocate again, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before eventually heading for Tawila.
Individuals seized by the RSF in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour
