'I had to run'

Civilians flee deadly violence in fallen city

- Zeinab Mohammed Salih

Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a nurse for three years at El-Fasher Hospital South when the city was captured on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

She was busy treating patients, including an elderly woman who needed a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

"They killed six wounded soldiers and civilians in their beds - some of them women," she said. “I don't know what happened to my other patients. I had to run when they stormed the hospital."

Khalil, 27, was shot in the right foot and thigh as RSF fighters took control of the nearby military headquarters. She fled El Fasher and walked for a day, injured and without food, to reach the town of Garney. "On the way, they took my phone and money. I was left with nothing," she said.

More than 1,000 people, including women and children, walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila in North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher, which was captured by the RSF after an 18-month siege.

Tawila, about 34 miles west of El Fasher, is under the control of the Sudan Liberation Army faction led by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur (SLA-AW).