This article is also available in Arabic / هذا التحديث متوفر أيضًا باللغة العربية
The Sudan War Monitor (SWM) initiative aims to fill a gap in the information space at the nexus between traditional journalism and the new technologies of open-source research, geolocation, mapping, and analysis of satellite imagery. Our project began as an ad hoc collaboration among volunteers, including Sudanese and international journalists, translators, and open source researchers.
Here’s an update on the project for the period of July 10 to August 4:
We analyzed many conflict-related videos and produced dozens of articles providing news and analysis about conflict incidents in Sudan.
For the first time, we began producing occasional maps showing the areas of control in Khartoum, Omdurman, and Bahri, to accompany our analysis.
We held discussions with several prospective partners and prominent international media outlets.
We nearly doubled the size of our email list and grew our social media following substantially.
We experimented with ways to proactively combat disinformation on social media.
We continued growing our volunteer network; the efforts of Sudan War Monitor are driven by a team of about a dozen regular and occasional volunteers.
Unfortunately, due to financial hardship a few members of our team dropped out. We are grateful for their efforts nonetheless. Some volunteers lacked adequate equipment for their work because they were displaced by the war. These are challenges we hope to address.
We plan to produce a series of explanatory articles for those who may not be familiar with the conflict.
We continued internal discussions about our methods, goals, roles, and procedures.
Sudan War Monitor would not exist but for our volunteers, followers, and supporters. So, we try to provide an update on the project’s progress every few weeks.
Thank you for your support.