‘Civilians were slain in their beds’: disorder and violence prevail following taking of El Fasher
A nurse named Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a healthcare worker over a three-year period within the South El Fasher hospital 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, when the attack began.
“They killed six wounded soldiers plus civilian patients in their beds – among them female victims,” she recounts. “I am unaware of the fate to my other patients. I had to run when they stormed the hospital.”
Khalil, 27, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and 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 get to the settlement of Garney. “On the way, they seized my mobile and cash,” she says. “I ended up with nothing.”
Over a thousand individuals – comprising women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to arrive at Tawila town in North Darfur after running from El Fasher, which fell under control after an 18-month siege.
Tawila, approximately 34 miles westward away from El Fasher, remains under the authority by the SLA faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.
Last Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – blamed the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. United Nations officials stated there were videos showing “dozens of unarmed men either being shot or deceased, surrounded by RSF fighters.”
Historical Background
Hostilities commenced in Sudan's capital on 15 April 2023 as an escalating power struggle among the two primary factions within the military government finally turned deadly.
From one perspective exist the official Sudanese army, which maintain general loyalty to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. Against him exist the irregular troops belonging to the RSF, a collection of militias who follow the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.
The Rapid Support Forces were first created by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir himself as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force known as the Janjaweed, which soon became linked with extensive brutalities. Back in 2013, Bashir reformed the faction into the RSF, deploying them to crush a fresh rebellion in South Darfur.
The fighting has thrown Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history”, based on UN statements. It has produced the world’s worst displacement crisis, dispersing over 10 million individuals internally along with 4 million refugees into neighbouring countries, putting mounting pressure upon Chad and South Sudan.
Current Situation Updates
Based on eyewitness accounts, many additional civilians continue to be held by the RSF and partner militias within Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Several are previous army members belonging to the Sudanese military, the Joint Forces and other militant organizations which had been combatting together with the army. They are reportedly being held because they cannot afford extortion payments between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. Those unable to pay have been detained for days, and in some cases freed only when becoming gravely ill.
The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed military personnel escaping El Fasher to enter Tawila provided they give up their weapons.
A man named Adam Yagoub, twenty-eight years old, a chauffeur from Sennar in central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed after being captured by three camel-riding militiamen near Garney.
“They wanted to cut my head off with a blade,” he informs, exhibiting his limb, which one of the fighters hit using an AK-47 rifle butt. “Then one of them recognised me – his brother had worked with me – and urged them not to execute me. There were 18 of us who departed El Fasher collectively, but only eight made it to Tawila. I assume the others died.”
Yagoub states he witnessed 22 deceased individuals close to what he described as a fraudulent water source utilized by RSF forces and partner armed groups in the area connecting Garney and Tawila. “This is an ambush,” he explains. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and when they get to it, the militias are waiting. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and carried the bodies off to conceal them.”
A different medical worker who escaped El Fasher South hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive stated RSF combatants came in via one entrance and commenced firing upon patients in the emergency ward, murdering no less than eight. “We ran out via another entrance, however they struck my head using a rifle,” he recounts.
Via a recorded message on Wednesday, the RSF commander, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or officer who had “violated the right of any person” would be held accountable.
Many of those who escaped El Fasher utilized hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit before running west under darkness's protection. Previously displaced households originating from the urban Abu Shouk settlement had to displace once more, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before finally moving toward Tawila.
Individuals seized by the RSF in Garney were apparently provided {water mixed with flour|flour