The few journalists who are still working in Sudan have an important role in a battle that is not only fought with weapons, but also with (mis)information. But their job is being made increasingly difficult, especially by the warring factions who prefer to put forward only their truth.
The journalists still working in Sudan – especially Sudanese – keep the news gathering going, “although they are under pressure from digital taunts and flying bullets and bombs,” says Mohamed Abdulrachman, former director of the Suna news agency, who moved to Sudan in 2021 after the coup. Netherlands fled. There are therefore great concerns about the speed at which the information supply from Sudan dries up or becomes distorted, because disinformation is also a growing problem. Sudanese journalists are being threatened, attacked and held hostage on a large scale, according to research by the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate (SJS). Their findings were disclosed in full by the SJS through Twitter .
The battle rages between the government army of Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as ‘Hemedti’ (meaning ‘my protector’ in local Arabic). On Thursday, the RSF stormed Hala 86 radio station in the capital Khartoum. A social media video shows two soldiers in the studio wearing headphones and holding a banner with the radio’s logo. “The continued storming of press and media headquarters is unacceptable,” writes the SJS.
Fixed for nine days
Both the Sudanese army and the RSF do not like reporting by independent journalists. Durra Gambo, who works for an Arabic-language TV channel, says from the capital that she “doesn’t feel safe at all” as a journalist. She was detained in her office in central Khartoum for nine days due to constant attacks. When she was able to leave the building, she was immediately stopped and threatened by RSF soldiers: “You journalists are not telling the truth,” she was told.
A large number of journalists are caught in the polarization between the military and the RSF and their reporting is pure propaganda
Mohamed Abdulrachman former director of the Suna news agency
She was arrested again a few days later. This time by five National Army soldiers at a checkpoint, as she was on her way to visit relatives in Omdurman, the commercial center of the country. She was accused of working for General Hemedti. Her car and bags were searched. “Very frightening,” she says. “You are very bad people, they said about us journalists. You don’t deserve to be Sudanese. And: you don’t deserve to live.” The army let her go, but the threat is not over.
Death list
Thirty others who criticized the army are on a list Facebook accusing them of ‘betraying’ Sudan. They receive death threats through phone calls or on WhatsApp. “Colleagues of mine were detained by the military for days,” says journalist Muhammad Al-Seif from Khartoum. Groups of journalists have been held hostage for up to three days at news editors, SJS reports. And they are also not safe at home or on the road, in case of attacks on their homes or roadblocks, where their phones are taken away. “There is no respect for international laws and regulations,” says Al-Seif.
Mutual cooperation is the best way to verify the authenticity of the news before publication and to ensure our safety
Muhammad Al Seif journalist in Khartoum
“Most journalistic work in newspaper offices has become impossible because the offices are located in the city center, where fierce fighting takes place,” says Al-Seif. The national radio and TV channels no longer broadcast news. “Despite the constant internet interruptions, we still publish the latest news online from home when we are connected.” On the same internet, the military calls on civilians to prevent reporting by journalists in war-affected districts. “We consider this to be incitement to hatred against journalists,” writes the SJS.
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An additional challenge is the fake news that is being spread. “A large number of journalists are caught in the polarization between the army and the RSF and their reporting is pure propaganda,” notes Mohamed Abdulrachman. A lack of professionalism plays a role. That is largely the legacy of the 30 years of Islamic fundamentalist-led rule under President Omas al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019. “They were trained for propaganda and polarization and do not know the concept of independent journalism.”
Propaganda machine
When Mohamed Abdulrachman became head of the Suna national news agency in 2019, he found a propaganda machine populated by fundamentalists and a lot of old-fashioned equipment. “They were still working with Windows 7 and 90 percent of the journalists were Islamic radicals.” Those fundamentalists are still active and they too are involved in the propaganda war.
“Mutual cooperation is the best way to verify the authenticity of the news before publication and to ensure our safety,” says journalist Muhammad Al-Seif.
“We have a network of fellow journalists across the city and the rest of the country. If we hear about an attack, for example at a school, we call the nearest journalist for confirmation.”
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In addition to the war between the two fighting cocks Burhan and Dagalo, an old conflict has flared up in the western region of Darfur. Here journalists are not so much threatened because of their profession, says Ibrahim Hamouda Jadelkarim from Amsterdam. He is a program maker at the Sudanese Radio Dabanga, the only independent Sudanese radio station that works from the Netherlands with reporters throughout the country. “The threat comes from indiscriminate heavy artillery fire.”
In Darfur, the violence is even worse than in Khartoum. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced, journalists find it difficult to find a safe place to write or have no access to facilities or technology because their belongings have been looted by militias. Yet, albeit sparsely, information from independent Sudanese journalists also emerges from Darfur.
Without a reliable and constant flow of information, the attention for the war in Sudan quickly fades, fears the Sudanese-Dutch Sahar Abdelrahim, who organizes a political Sudanese movement from Amstelveen. “I have put out a request to Giro 555 for a fundraising campaign for my country. He refused because the war does not get enough media attention,” she says, who has lived in the Netherlands since 1997. “The expectation is that a fundraising campaign will make little sense.”