A genocidal army has raped and massacred thousands of people. There's evidence of child soldiers fighting and dying, and mass graves dot the desert.
Now Darfur’s capital is under attack, with almost a million refugees trapped inside. Experts are calling it a "killbox."
These unspeakable atrocities are happening in a near-total information blackout. Sudan has shuttered the internet, arrested local reporters, and blocked foreign journalists -- meaning very little media coverage, or pressure on governments to act.
But a small team of war-crimes investigators is breaking through, using a cutting-edge combination of satellite imagery and witness accounts to document the shocking violence. The project has already led to major news stories and government intervention, helping to trigger sanctions on the worst warlords.
With the attack in Darfur underway, this work is needed like never before -- but it urgently needs funding to continue. With enough funding, Avaaz could:
- Fund “eye in the sky” satellite monitoring to track troops in real time, expose the foreign actors fuelling these atrocities, and use the data to protect civilians by alerting media and governments;
- Pile pressure on governments everywhere with advocacy tours in key capitals, while galvanising urgent action at the UN, from the Security Council to humanitarian teams;
- Fund an international media operation to document the humanitarian crisis and secure coverage of genocidal violence in major news outlets; and
- Build an emergency response fund to power urgent campaigns to protect civilians caught up in war as soon as they are needed.