‘They killed civilians in their beds’: disorder and violence reign after fall of El Fasher
Nawal Khalil had been working as a healthcare worker for the past three years in the El Fasher South medical facility when the city was taken over on Sunday by RSF paramilitaries. She was busy treating patients, among them an older female patient requiring a blood transfusion, when the attack began.
“They killed six wounded soldiers and civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she says. “I don’t know what happened regarding my other patients. I was forced to flee after they raided the medical facility.”
Khalil, 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and upper leg while RSF combatants gained control of the nearby military headquarters. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to reach the town of Garney. “On the way, they seized my mobile and money,” she says. “I ended up with nothing.”
In excess of 1,000 persons – featuring females and minors – walked for two days to get to the settlement of Tawila within North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which was seized following an 18-month blockade.
This settlement, approximately 34 miles westward away from El Fasher, is under the control of the SLA-AW group under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.
This past Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – that cooperate with the Sudanese army – accused the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. United Nations officials stated that footage existed featuring numerous unarmed males either being shot or deceased, surrounded by RSF fighters.”
Contextual Information
Fighting broke out within Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as a growing contest for power between the two main factions of the armed forces leadership ultimately became violent.
Among the combatants stand the Sudanese military forces, that stay mostly faithful to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the nation's actual leader. Opposing him exist the irregular troops of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an assembly of militia groups which support the ex-warlord General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.
The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force called the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with massive human rights violations. During 2013, Bashir reformed the faction into the RSF, sending them to suppress a new uprising in southern Darfur.
The war has pushed Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in modern times, based on UN statements. It has generated the globe's most severe displacement emergency, scattering more than 10 million people within the country plus 4 million who escaped to adjacent nations, putting mounting pressure on Chad and South Sudan.
Ongoing Developments
According to witnesses, numerous more non-combatants remain trapped by the RSF and allied militias in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Many are former soldiers belonging to the Sudanese military, the allied Joint Forces and other militant organizations that had been fighting alongside the army. They are reportedly being held since they cannot pay ransom demands of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (approximately £6,000-£12,000), based on survivor accounts who arrived in Tawila. People who cannot afford payment have been detained for days, and in some cases released only after developing critical health conditions.
The SLA-AW has apparently permitted army soldiers running from El Fasher to access Tawila on condition they surrender their weapons.
Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a chauffeur from Sennar in central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed subsequent to his seizure by three armed men mounted on camels in the Garney vicinity.
“They planned to decapitate me with a knife,” he recounts, displaying his arm, which one militant assaulted using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Subsequently one identified me – his brother had worked with me – and urged them not to execute me. There were 18 of us who left El Fasher together, but only eight made it to Tawila. I think the others are dead.”
Yagoub states he saw 22 bodies in proximity to what he termed a fraudulent water source utilized by RSF forces and allied militias between Garney and Tawila. “It represents a trap,” he says. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and upon arriving there, the armed groups lie in wait. 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 after the attack on Sunday reported RSF militiamen penetrated via one entrance and commenced firing upon patients in the emergency ward, murdering no less than eight. “We escaped through a different gate, but they hit me on the head using a rifle,” he states.
In a video statement last Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or official who breached 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 under darkness's protection. Families already uprooted from Abu Shouk camp in the city were forced to move again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before finally moving toward Tawila.
Individuals seized by the RSF within Garney reportedly received {water mixed with flour|flour
