‘Civilians were slain in their beds’: mayhem and cruelty reign after fall of El Fasher
A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a medical volunteer for the past three years at El Fasher South hospital after the city fell captured on Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was busy treating patients, featuring one senior woman who needed a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.
“They killed six wounded soldiers and civilians in their beds – including some women,” she recounts. “The outcome remains unknown for my remaining patients. I needed to escape when they stormed the hospital.”
Khalil, 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and her thigh during the RSF's seizure of the closeby army headquarters. She ran from the urban area and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, injured and without food, to arrive at Garney town. “On the way, they took my phone and cash,” she describes. “I ended up with nothing.”
More than 1,000 people – comprising women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to reach the town of Tawila within North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which was seized after an 18-month siege.
The town of Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the west away from El Fasher, is under the control of the Sudan Liberation Army faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.
On Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – accused the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. The UN said that visual evidence showed featuring numerous unarmed males either being shot or deceased, surrounded by RSF fighters.”
Contextual Information
Hostilities commenced in Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as a growing contest for power between the two main factions of the armed forces leadership finally turned deadly.
On one side are the Sudanese armed forces, which maintain general loyalty towards General al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Against him exist the irregular troops of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a collection of militias which support the ex-warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.
The RSF was originally established by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force known as the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with massive human rights violations. Back in 2013, Bashir reformed the faction to become the RSF, using them to quell a fresh rebellion in southern Darfur.
The war has pushed Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in contemporary history, based on UN statements. It has created the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, forcing more than 10 million persons internally plus 4 million who escaped into neighbouring countries, creating increasing strain on both Chad and South Sudan.
Present Circumstances
According to witnesses, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and associated armed groups in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers belonging to the Sudanese military, the collaborative forces and other militant organizations which had been combatting together with the army. They are reportedly being held because they cannot afford extortion payments of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been held for multiple days, and sometimes released only after becoming gravely ill.
The SLA-AW has apparently permitted military personnel escaping El Fasher to come into Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.
A man named Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a chauffeur from Sennar within central Sudan, barely avoided execution following his capture by three camel-riding militiamen in the Garney vicinity.
“They intended to behead me using a knife,” he tells, exhibiting his limb, which one militant assaulted with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother had worked with me – and begged them not to kill me. There were 18 of us who left El Fasher together, but only eight made it to Tawila. I assume the others died.”
Yagoub says he observed 22 corpses close to what he described as a “fake well” utilized by RSF forces and associated militias along the Garney-Tawila route. “It represents a trap,” he says. “People walk all day without water, and when they reach it, the militiamen await. They murdered 22 males at that location and carried the bodies off to obscure them.”
A different medical worker who escaped El Fasher South hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive said RSF fighters entered via one entrance and opened fire on patients in the ER section, causing at least eight fatalities. “We ran out via another entrance, however they struck my head with a firearm,” he recounts.
In a video statement this past Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, said that any soldier or commander who infringed upon the rights of any individual would face consequences.
Numerous individuals who fled from El Fasher passed hours concealing themselves near military artillery prior to escaping westward during nighttime. Previously displaced households from the city’s Abu Shouk camp had to displace once more, taking asylum in the Daraja Oula district before finally moving toward Tawila.
Those captured by the RSF in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour
