‘Civilians were slain in their beds’: mayhem and cruelty reign after fall of El Fasher
Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a healthcare worker for the past three years within the South El Fasher hospital as the city became captured on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was occupied with patient care, featuring one senior woman requiring a blood transfusion, when the offensive started.
“Six injured soldiers were killed and civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she recounts. “The outcome remains unknown to my other patients. I needed to escape as they invaded the hospital.”
Khalil, 27, received a gunshot wound to her right foot and thigh as RSF fighters took control of the nearby military headquarters. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, injured and without food, to reach the town of Garney. “During the journey, they seized my mobile and cash,” she describes. “I ended up with nothing.”
In excess of 1,000 persons – including women and children – traveled on foot for two days to arrive at Tawila town within North Darfur following their escape from El Fasher, which was seized following an 18-month blockade.
Tawila, around 55 kilometers to the west from El Fasher, is under the control by the SLA faction commanded by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur.
Last Tuesday, the collaborative Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – blamed the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians after the city's capture. The UN said that visual evidence showed depicting dozens of weaponless men being shot or lying dead, encircled by RSF combatants.”
Contextual Information
Conflict erupted in Sudan's capital back on April 15, 2023 as an escalating power struggle involving the two key groups within the military government eventually resulted in fatalities.
On one side are the Sudanese armed forces, which maintain general loyalty to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Opposing him exist the irregular troops of the RSF paramilitary group, a gathering of armed factions which support the ex-warlord General Dagalo, known as Hemedti.
The RSF was originally established by the former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir as an Arab anti-rebellion militia called the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with extensive brutalities. During 2013, Bashir transformed the group to become the RSF, deploying them to crush a recent insurrection in southern Darfur.
The conflict has plunged Sudan into a terrible humanitarian disaster in contemporary history, as per UN representatives. It has created the globe's most severe displacement emergency, forcing more than 10 million persons inside the nation along with 4 million refugees into neighbouring countries, putting mounting pressure on both Chad and South Sudan.
Ongoing Developments
According to witnesses, thousands more civilians remain trapped by the RSF and allied militias in Garney, south-west of El Fasher. Numerous are ex-military personnel from Sudan's armed forces, the collaborative forces and other armed groups that were previously aligned with the military. Reports indicate they're imprisoned since they cannot pay extortion payments of between 5m and 10m Sudanese pounds (around six to twelve thousand pounds), per those who escaped who made it to Tawila. Those unable to pay remain imprisoned for several days, and sometimes let go solely after developing critical health conditions.
The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed military personnel escaping El Fasher to access Tawila if they relinquish their arms.
A man named Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a motorist originating from Sennar from central Sudanese regions, barely avoided execution following his capture by three militiamen on camels in the Garney vicinity.
“They wanted to cut my head off with a knife,” he recounts, showing his arm, that one combatant struck with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Afterward one remembered me – his brother was my colleague – and pleaded with them to spare me. Our group contained 18 individuals who exited El Fasher as a group, but only eight made it to Tawila. I think the others are dead.”
Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies close to what he described as a deceptive well utilized by RSF forces and partner armed groups along the Garney-Tawila route. “It represents a trap,” he comments. “People walk all day without water, and when they reach it, the armed groups lie in wait. They slaughtered 22 men on that spot and carried the bodies off to conceal them.”
A different medical worker who ran from South El Fasher hospital subsequent to Sunday's offensive stated RSF combatants came in via one entrance and commenced firing upon patients in the ER section, murdering no less than eight. “We escaped through a different gate, but they hit me on the head using a rifle,” he says.
Through a video declaration on Wednesday, the leader of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, stated that any military personnel or officer who had “violated the right of any civilian would be punished.
Several people who got away from El Fasher passed hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit before fleeing west under darkness's protection. Already displaced families from Abu Shouk camp in the city were compelled to relocate again, seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood before eventually heading for Tawila.
Individuals seized by the RSF in Garney were reportedly given {water mixed with flour|flour