2023-10-23 08:00:00
On October 10, militiamen of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) crushed the journalist Halima Idris Salim, who covered the clashes in Khartoum for the independent media Sudan Bukra. This is the fourth journalist killed since the start of the war on April 15 between the very powerful RSF militia and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Already complicated before, access to information has been drastically restricted in six months.
Abdelmoniem Abuedries, the president of the main journalists’ union, lists only 27 reporters in Khartoum state, the epicenter of the clashes. “90% of Sudanese media headquarters are located in combat zones, in Khartoum and in the regions of Darfur and Kordofan,” notes the journalist. He adds that 45 of his colleagues have been in prison, arrested by one belligerent or the other. Two of them are still languishing in FSR jails. “Neither side wants an independent third party to shed light on the crimes they are committing…”
Reporters suspected by both camps
Also a member of the union, journalist Durra Gambo covered the war for two months before going into exile in Qatar. “When I passed through an area controlled by the FAS, the soldiers suspected me of working for Hemeti [surnom du général Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, chef des FSR, NDLR], while in the neighborhoods managed by the RSF, the latter accused me of being an agent of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, the boss of the army. As journalists, we are not safe anywhere,” insists Durra Gambo.
His fellow refugees in Wad Madani, the central town of the country whose population has quadrupled since the start of the conflict, are deprived of land. “The military intelligence services do not want them to show proof of the violence perpetrated on both sides,” laments this journalist, frustrated at no longer being able to properly carry out her mission from abroad.
Military propaganda divides opinion
“Each side works hard to convince the media to adopt its unique point of view,” confirms Shuhdy Nader, who works for the Saudi channel Al-Arabiya from Omdurman, a city adjacent to Khartoum. This also involves online campaigns to discredit media coverage. War propaganda has led to extreme polarization of citizens, even though the information disseminated in this way is often the opposite of what we observe. » On several occasions, missiles fell on buildings near the Al-Arabiya premises. “I hope to escape death,” implores the young journalist. Despite everything, he is delighted with the professional experience he will retain from these extreme conditions.
Few Sudanese reporters collaborate with international media. This is particularly true in the vast western region of Darfur. “Only journalists from Khartoum had the chance to benefit from training and obtain efficient equipment in advance. In Darfur, among the 300 media professionals, only two speak English. Before the war, the others worked for local media but with the explosion of prices and the lack of liquidity, their meager salary is no longer enough,” explains Gouja Ahmed. In mid-July, this independent journalist decided to leave Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.
Forced exile and feelings of guilt
Twice, the fighters threatened to execute him. “The FAS stopped me, humiliated me, threw me to the ground and beat me. They fired three bullets one meter from my head. They accused me of working with the FSR because of my skin color,” says the survivor. Another day, it was the RSF who attacked him while he was filming the dismemberment of a Unicef warehouse. Gouja Ahmed cannot digest the dilemma that was imposed on him. “On the spot, I risked receiving a bullet. But abroad, the stress and lack of hope are eating away at me… I feel guilty because I can no longer cover what is happening. This punishment is more deadly than a bullet,” testifies the man who also worked as a rapporteur on human rights violations.
This October 18, the Darfuri reporter learned of the death of a friend which occurred a month earlier. Telecommunications remain cut in many areas of Darfur, preventing millions of local residents from accessing the latest developments in the war. All Sudanese newspapers also stopped being printed six months ago.
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