‘Civilians were slain in their beds’: chaos and brutality reign after capture of El Fasher
Nawal Khalil had been serving as a medical volunteer over a three-year period in the El Fasher South medical facility as the city became taken over on Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was busy treating patients, among them an older female patient requiring a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.
“They killed six wounded soldiers plus civilian patients in their beds – including some women,” she says. “I don’t know what happened for my remaining patients. I had to run after they raided the medical facility.”
The 27-year-old Khalil, was shot in the right foot and her thigh as RSF fighters took control of the closeby army headquarters. She ran from the urban area and journeyed by foot for 24 hours, hurt and lacking sustenance, to arrive at Garney town. “During the journey, they seized my mobile and currency,” she says. “I ended up with nothing.”
More than 1,000 people – including women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to reach the town of Tawila within North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was captured after an 18-month siege.
Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the west of El Fasher, is governed by by the SLA faction commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.
Last Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – charged the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. United Nations officials stated that footage existed showing “dozens of unarmed men who were shot or found dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”
Contextual Information
Conflict erupted in Sudan's capital during April of 2023 as a growing contest for power involving the two key groups within the military government eventually resulted in fatalities.
Among the combatants stand the Sudanese military forces, that stay mostly faithful towards General al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Opposing him stand the paramilitary forces belonging to the RSF, a gathering of armed factions who follow the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, called Hemedti.
The RSF was initially founded by the former dictatorial ruler Bashir's regime as an Arab counterinsurgency militia called the Janjaweed, which quickly became synonymous with widespread atrocities. During 2013, Bashir reformed the faction into the Rapid Support Forces, using them to quell a new uprising in southern Darfur.
The war has pushed Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in modern times, according to UN officials. It has generated the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, scattering more than 10 million people within the country and 4 million who have fled to adjacent nations, putting mounting pressure upon Chad and South Sudan.
Present Circumstances
Based on eyewitness accounts, many additional civilians remain trapped by the RSF and partner militias within Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers from the Sudanese army, the Joint Forces plus additional armed factions which had been combatting together with the army. They are reportedly being held since they cannot pay extortion payments ranging from 5 to 10 million Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), according to survivors who made it to Tawila. Those unable to pay have been detained for days, and sometimes released only after developing critical health conditions.
The SLA-AW has apparently permitted military personnel escaping El Fasher to come into Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.
The individual Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a chauffeur from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, closely avoided death following his capture by three armed men mounted on camels near Garney.
“They wanted to cut my head off using a knife,” he recounts, showing his arm, which one of the fighters hit 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. There were 18 of us who exited El Fasher as a group, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I assume the others died.”
Yagoub reports he witnessed 22 deceased individuals in proximity to what he termed a deceptive well used by the RSF and partner armed groups between Garney and Tawila. “It’s a trap,” he comments. “People walk all day without water, and upon arriving there, the armed groups lie in wait. They killed 22 men there and removed the corpses to conceal them.”
Another nurse who fled the El Fasher South medical facility following Sunday's assault reported RSF militiamen penetrated using one doorway and opened fire on patients in the emergency ward, murdering no less than eight. “We escaped through a different gate, yet they assaulted my head using a rifle,” he says.
Through a video declaration this past Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Dagalo, referred to 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 spent hours taking cover close to army artillery positions before running west under cover of darkness. Already displaced families from Abu Shouk camp in the city had to displace once more, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before eventually heading for Tawila.
Those captured by the RSF within Garney reportedly received {water mixed with flour|flour
