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((PLAYBOOK SLUG: SSUDAN SUDAN KORDOFAN (TV/R)
HEADLINE: Fighting Between Sudan’s Army, Rebel Groups Intensifies in Kordofan Area
TEASER: The fighting exposes ethnic tensions as data shows that fatalities due to conflict in the region have risen by fifteen times since Sudan’s war started in April
PUBLISHED AT: 08/02/23 AT 8:30AM
BYLINE: Henry Wilkins
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Renk, South Sudan
VIDEOGRAPHER: Henry Wilkins
VIDEO EDITOR: Henry Wilkins
ASSIGNING EDITOR: Daniel Schearf
SCRIPT EDITORS: caw, DLJ
VIDEO SOURCES: VOA, Zoom, https://twitter.com/daniel_van0/status/1659610441021112340
https://twitter.com/moehash1/status/1665469969486815233
PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV _x_ RADIO _x_
TRT: 3:27
VID APPROVED BY: pcd
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES: ))
((INTRO))
[[Much attention has been given to fighting in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, and its troubled Darfur region; however, the Kordofan area, on the border with South Sudan, has also been seeing intense clashes. Thousands of people in the area have fled to South Sudan, as fatalities due to the conflict increase. Henry Wilkins looks at this new front in this report from Renk, South Sudan.]]
((NARRATOR))
Like thousands of others, Muhammad Hamdan Muhammad has just arrived in South Sudan from El-Obeid in North Kordofan. He says that since Sudan’s war started in mid-April, fighting between the Sudanese military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the RSF, has intensified.
((Muhammad Hamdan Muhammad, Fled Sudan (in Dinka, 26 secs)))
“I came here because I fear for my safety, for my life. My friends have been killed there. I have seen it with my own eyes, both the government and the [Rapid Support Forces] are fighting. Many people are running away, but others are injured and killed. Many.”
(For radio: Muhammad says he came to South Sudan out of fear for his safety, fear for his life. He says that friends in Sudan were killed, which he saw with his own eyes when the government and the RSF were fighting. He adds that some were able to flee, but others were injured or killed.))
((NARRATOR))
Video taken from social media purports to show people taking cover from crossfire in Kordofan.
The fighting in Kordofan is partly what triggered the mass displacements seen here.
The Sudanese Armed Forces, the SAF, have accused rebels from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North, or SPLM-N, of breaking a cease-fire and attacking their troops throughout June and July. The SPLM-N is a group of ethnically Nuba people active in Kordofan since the 1980s.
According to experts, the SPLM-N has longstanding grievances with the mostly ethnically Arab Sudanese government and is taking advantage of the breakdown of law and order caused by the war in Sudan. The rebel group’s stated aim is to secure more political representation for the Nuba people.
((For radio: Samah Salman is president of the US-Educated Sudanese Association))
((MANDATORY COURTESY: ZOOM))
((Samah Salman, US-Educated Sudanese Association (in English, 19 secs)))
“There have long been ethnic tensions between Khartoum, the center of government, and the people of the Nuba mountains who have long been marginalized. We’re really at a tipping point where we may see South Kordofan being dragged into the war.”
((NARRATOR))
The fighting between the SAF and SPLM-N only accounts for one aspect of the fighting in Kordofan, however.
Data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a nonprofit that remotely monitors global conflict, shows there have been 485 fatalities in Kordofan due to conflict since Sudan’s war started in April. In the same period before the conflict, there were just 30, an increase of more than 15 times.
The data also reveals that approximately 80% of the fatalities can be linked to clashes between the paramilitary RSF and the SAF, which this video from social media purports to show..
Asked what the RSF is trying to achieve in Kordofan, one expert said it is not clear.
((For radio: Eric Reeves is a Sudan expert and professor emeritus at Smith College, in the US))
((MANDATORY COURTESY: ZOOM))
((Eric Reeves, Smith College Sudan Expert (in English, 27 secs)))
“That’s a good question; the political ambitions in Darfur are clear. This is where land has been promised to RSF recruits from other places in West Africa, Niger, Mali, it may be that some of this land has already been promised to RSF fighters, as it’s been promised to them in Darfur.”
((NARRATOR))
But what is clear is that average citizens are being forced to flee the area in the thousands. In July, the United Nations said around eight-thousand people have been displaced internally in Kordofan. There is no up to date data on how many have fled to South Sudan.
((REST OPTIONAL))
((NARRATOR))
Jamisko Fairla has also just arrived in South Sudan from Kordofan.
((Jamisko Fairla, Fled Sudan, (in Dinka, 25 secs)))
“I witnessed 16 people from South Sudan’s Dinka tribe being killed. They were killed in the crossfire by government forces.
((For radio: Jamisko Fairla has also just arrived in South Sudan from Kordofan. He says he witnessed 16 people from South Sudan’s Dinka tribe killed in Kordofan, adding that they were killed in crossfire by government forces.))
((NARRATOR))
As violence spirals in Kordofan, he says he doesn’t know when he’ll be able to return.
((Henry Wilkins, for VOA News, Renk, South Sudan))
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