News & Updates
Check out the latest from Sudan and our movement
Inside the Forgotten War in Darfur, Where the Killing Never Stopped
Watch a new short documentary on the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.
This is a brief history providing a contextual background for understanding the issues Operation Broken Silence works on. It is part of our resource list for students, teachers, and the curious.
For more information about what's happening in Sudan and our work, please sign up for our email list. You'll get 1 or 2 emails a month.
The jagged peaks of the Jebel Marra mountains rise suddenly out of an endless stretch of desert in western Sudan’s Darfur region. Rebel soldiers, many of whom came here to fight against the government nearly 20 years ago, man their posts.
Today civilians here live in relative safety after decades of war, but these mountaintop villages are completely cut off from the rest of Sudan. To many, trauma from decades of bombs dropped on them by their own government is compounded by their total isolation.
A team from VICE News are the first outside journalists to access the last rebel stronghold in Jebel Marra in five years. What they found is an area still completely cut off from Sudan and still functionally at war. Nearly a year after a historic revolution toppled President Omar al-Bashir, some in Jebel Marra haven’t even heard he is no longer in power.
GET INVOLVED
Operation Broken Silence sponsors Sudanese teachers and students in Yida Refugee Camp. You can help by starting a campaign for them.
About Us
Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower the Sudanese people through innovative programs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We focus on empowering Sudanese change makers and their critical work. Learn more here.
Donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. Give here.
July 2020 Update: Nuba College Scholarship Fund
An update about our college scholarship fund for Nuba students.
Since 2016, Operation Broken Silence has sponsored Jargi Joseph Aloga, a college-ready Nuba student who is studying Public Administration and Management in Uganda.
There is no quality university in the oppressed Nuba Mountains for students like Jargi, so they must attain a higher education elsewhere in east Africa. Because of the devastation of war, most students do not have the financial support to move to a different country to pursue a college degree.
We met Jargi in 2014 when he was a refugee in South Sudan. His remarkable story was featured in our 2015 documentary film Lost Generation of Sudan, which you can watch for free below:
Jargi received his diploma in Public Administration and Management last year and is continuing advanced courses in the same field of study. He plans to return to the Nuba Mountains in a few years. Right now though, Jargi has an immediate $3,500 need to cover his next semester and living expenses.
Unfortunately, our scholarship fund is completely out of money. The group of donors who usually replenish this small, but important fund have stopped giving due to personal financial reasons brought on by the economic fallout of the pandemic. We don’t know when they will be able to give again, but we know for sure that it won’t be this year.
Jargi might not only have to drop out of school, but he may soon lose his home. Our scholarship fund also covers his basic living expenses, like food and rent. Since our scholarship fund has dried up, he is running out of ways to cover basic expenses.
How You Can Help
The only problem here is funding. Your generous giving means Jargi can thrive the rest of the year.
2020 will go down as one of the most challenging years for our work. Giving is down across all of our programs as our supporters feel the economy reeling from the pandemic.
Whether you can pitch in $50 or $500, your generosity is what will help keep this future Sudanese leader on track. His country certainly needs him to succeed.
About Us
Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower the Sudanese people through innovative programs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We focus on empowering Sudanese change makers and their critical work. Learn more here.
Donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. Give today.
Soirée For Sudan $5,000 Match!
Register for our 8th annual virtual gala and help us make the most of a $5,000 matching gift!
Our 8th annual gala is going virtual, which means you can attend from wherever you are! Get ready for three days filled with live events and demos, a silent auction and prizes, and more.
While anyone can pay to enter Soirée For Sudan, you have the option to register for free and raise $100 through your gala fundraising page. A generous private donor is matching up to $5,000 in donations. This means you can hit your goal twice as fast and bring additional support to the 24 teachers we sponsor in Yida Refugee Camp.
Our newest Board member Sarah is showing us how easy it is to use this generous matching gift:
As the new chairwoman of Soirée For Sudan’s Planning Committee, Sarah believes in leading by example. She registered for the event just like all of our other attendees do. It only took her a minute to register for free and get her fundraising page! You can do it too.
Because a private donor is matching all donations made through attendee fundraising pages, Sarah blew her original $100 goal out of the water. Queen.
All you have to do is raise $50 through your fundraising page. Our private donor will pitch in another $50 and double your impact. You can do it!
Sarah's fundraising is helping the 24 teachers we sponsor in Yida Refugee Camp. They’ve lost 60% of their funding from the economic fallout of the pandemic. You can join Sarah and help fix that! When you register for free and fundraise through Soirée For Sudan, your support goes to these teachers. Be awesome like Sarah.
Can't attend but still want to help? Make a matched donation here!
Finally, if you are a member of our monthly giving family The Renewal, don't forget to claim your two free tickets! Shoot us a quick message here to claim your tickets.
About Us
Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower the Sudanese people through innovative programs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We focus on empowering Sudanese change makers and their critical work. Learn more here.
Donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. Give today.
Operation Broken Silence & Facebook Integration
We are excited to announce that our supporters can multiply their impact by seamlessly integrating their Operation Broken Silence fundraising page to Facebook. This feature is now live across all of our campaigns and events.
Hello supporters,
We are excited to announce that you can multiply your impact by seamlessly integrating your Operation Broken Silence fundraising page to Facebook. This feature is now live across all of our campaigns and events.
With this new integration, you can create a fundraising page on our platform, then seamlessly push your page (complete with your name, photo, and headline) to Facebook to create a Facebook fundraiser as well.
This will allow you to raise donations through your OBS fundraising page and your Facebook fundraising page. Giving made on either platform will sync between the two. For example, if someone gives $20 to your Facebook fundraising page, that donation will also show up on your OBS fundraising page, and vice versa.
Our supporters have often had to weigh the benefits and downsides when they choose which platform to start a fundraising page on. This means many of their potential donors who may not be on Facebook or who can only be reached on Facebook have been left out. Our integration eliminates this problem once and for all.
We know this new feature will help our supporters easily reach more donors in their networks and remove some of the barriers to meeting their goals. We are excited to watch you use this new tool to grow and sustain the programs we support in Sudan.
After you have your OBS fundraising page, or if you already have one, here’s how to create a Facebook fundraising page that will sync:
SELECT MANAGE
Login to your OBS fundraising page and click or tap the Manage button at the top-right corner.
Select facebook
It’s the tab on the right side of your fundraising dashboard.
SELECT create
Hit the Create button. If you aren’t already signed in to Facebook, you’ll be prompted to do so. Once you’re signed in, your Facebook fundraising page will be created automatically.
You are now ready to accept donations on both platforms. You can also use our new guide to crush your fundraising goal. Cheers!
Onward,
Mark & Audrey
About Us
Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower the Sudanese people through innovative programs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We focus on empowering Sudanese change makers and their critical work. Learn more here.
Donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. Give today.
Rapid Support Forces Committing Ethnic Cleansing Campaign Near Kadugli
Since mid-May, over 4,000 Nuba families have been forcibly displaced from the immediate area surrounding Kadugli, the state capital of South Kordofan in Sudan.
Since mid-May, over 4,000 Nuba families have been forcibly displaced from the immediate area surrounding Kadugli, the state capital of South Kordofan in Sudan. These displacements are the direct result of repeated and targeted attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a violent regime paramilitary outfit that Sudan’s transitional government refuses to disarm and demobilize.
The vast majority of these displaced families have fled into liberated areas underneath the control of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N). The SPLM-N is an armed opposition movement that controls large swaths of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan. The Sudanese military and their regime paramilitary allies have been waging a genocidal war against the Nuba people since 2011.
Background
In 2019, a peaceful revolution swept across Sudan and pushed the country into a period of transitional governance. While several regime officials are under arrest and new civilian leaders have made marginal reforms, top regime generals remain in positions of immense power. That includes the commander of the RSF Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemeti.
The situation in the Nuba Mountains remains unchanged despite Sudan’s revolution. A ceasefire has been in place since 2016; however, regime forces routinely violate the agreement by targeting isolated Nuba communities near frontline areas. Such attacks are often spearheaded by RSF units.
It’s not uncommon for several dozen families to be displaced by regime forces every month in the Nuba Mountains. Seeing 4,000 Nuba families displaced in such a short time is an exponential escalation from the “normal” displacement numbers we have seen in the region over the last few years.
The Ethnic Cleansing of El Berdab
On May 12, violence broke out at a market in Kadugli and spread to other areas of the town. There were reportedly no security forces present when the conflict began. It appears that a dispute over the theft of livestock and the sale of a weapon escalated into inter-communal conflict. RSF fighters reportedly entered the fray and suffered casualties.
On May 13, government army soldiers attacked a group of RSF paramilitaries near Kadugli. The reason for the attack remains unknown. Violence between the Sudanese army, RSF, and another regime paramilitary called the Popular Defense Forces (PDF) has been on the rise in the Nuba Mountains region this year, as various regime security forces jockey for power.
Following the attack, RSF commander Hemeti ominously claimed:
“Since change occurred in the country, the RSF have been facing many challenges, treachery, and have been targeted more than once, by hidden hands. These hands not only work to destroy the RSF, but also intend to destroy Sudan. We will expose them in the near future.”
As is often the case when the RSF faces a military defeat, the paramilitary group immediately began an offensive not against the attackers, but unarmed civilians.
RSF paramilitaries used the inter-communal violence and Sudanese army attack as a pretext to invade the nearby town of El Berdab on the same day. Survivors have reported that when RSF soldiers invaded El Berdab on May 13, they asked residents what their ethnicity was. Those identified as ethnically Nuba were systematically tortured or killed and their houses pillaged and burned to the ground.
A SPLM-N-held valley in the southern Nuba Mountains during the rainy season.
While the Kadugli area is not far from the frontlines of the Nuba Mountains, it is under the complete control of the Sudanese army and RSF. This means that RSF paramilitaries knew they would not encounter armed SPLM-N resistance when they entered El Berdab. The only targets were Nuba civilians.
Hours later, more than 2,000 people had fled El Berdab as a direct result of this targeted attack. It is estimated that over 200 homes were systematically burned to the ground so that Nuba residents could not return.
Since this attack, RSF units have continued to target Nuba civilians in the Kadugli vicinity, which has accelerated forced displacement. Most recently, RSF paramilitaries killed a police officer and tortured and executed a small group of unarmed farmers.
Many of the 4,000 displaced families from these attacks have fled into the Buram and Heiban localities of the Nuba Mountains, where the SPLM-N has the ability to repulse RSF incursions. One of our local contacts has reported that there are new humanitarian needs caused by the sudden influx of such a large number of people, and some families are considering going south to Yida Refugee Camp.
It is unlikely that these families will be able to return to their land near Kadugli anytime soon, if ever.
There is a high probability that the number of forcibly displaced families from this latest RSF ethnic cleansing campaign will continue to increase in the coming weeks.
Children living in the Nuba Mountains and nearby Yida Refugee Camp have grown up under the threat of violence by the Rapid Support Forces and government aerial bombing. Many Nuba schools have been destroyed since 2011. If these children do not attain a quality education, the next generation of leaders seeking to end this crisis will be lost.
Operation Broken Silence sponsors 24 Nuba teachers at two schools in Yida Refugee Camp. We’re the only organization in the world supporting teachers here. You can help us continue doing that by signing up to give monthly.
If you are not in a position to give monthly, could you start a fundraising campaign or make a one-time donation? In our line of our work, every penny counts.
About Us
Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower the Sudanese people through innovative programs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We focus on empowering Sudanese change makers and their critical work. Learn more here.
Donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. Give today.
June 2020 Yida Education Update
An update from the Nuba teachers you support in Yida Refugee Camp.
In 2015, Operation Broken Silence began funding 4 Nuba teachers in Yida Refugee Camp who were giving lessons underneath a tree. With your support, their small effort has blossomed into the Endure Primary and Renewal Secondary Schools. Today, you support 24 Nuba teachers who work in these schools. They run the show, not us, and they oversee 1,300 students every week.
Endure Primary has become one of the top performing schools in the region and a treasured possession of the Nuba community in Yida. More than 3,000 children have been served by the school to date. Renewal Secondary began a three-year phased opening in 2019 and has already shown great promise.
It has been incredible to watch these teachers use the funding you provide to create a more just situation for the children of Yida. One of the largest demographics here is children under the age of 14. The vision has always been to ensure that every single child in Yida has the opportunity to attain a quality education at no financial cost to them.
Today, this vision is in jeopardy. The joy we have seen for years in the faces of teachers and students at Endure Primary and Renewal Secondary is at risk. And it comes at a time when education needs across Yida are skyrocketing.
Right now, Primary 8 and Secondary 4 classes are in early preparations for their national exams. These are the final grades in both schools before graduation. Endure Primary has achieved a 90%+ graduation rate over the last few years due to high testing scores, and this will be the first round of national exams for Renewal Secondary. In the coming months, testing preparation will only intensify as the teachers take on a more direct role in coaching their students.
In mid-May, the pressure on these 24 teachers mounted even more. Yida is home to several other schools that are not officially connected to our Nuba education partner. These schools have historically been poorly funded and receive essentially zero outside support today. Because Endure Primary and Renewal Secondary make up the backbone of the education system in Yida, the Nuba government formally requested that our education partner help support Primary 8 and Secondary 4 students from these other schools as they prepare for exams as well. Today, an additional 500+ students from schools across Yida are receiving testing support from our teachers at Endure Primary and Renewal Secondary.
Refugees from across Yida begin gathering for an end-of-semester ceremony at our schools in December 2019.
Testing is tentatively scheduled for primary students in November and secondary students in December. Students that fail these tests are required to start another year of studies before testing again. Those who pass get the great joy of moving forward in a ceremony that usually brings in thousands of refugees from across Yida.
This should be a time of focus, enthusiasm, and pride. We should be pouring more resources into the 24 teachers we support than ever before, because they are working harder than ever before to support more students than ever before.
Sadly, that is not happening.
Since March, 60% of the donations that these teachers rely on have been wiped out in the economic fallout of coronavirus pandemic. At a time when our teachers are being asked to do more for their community, they are receiving less support to get the job done. This means lower salaries, less school supplies, and a moratorium on building needed new classrooms. The momentum that has been building in the Endure Primary and Renewal Secondary these past few years is being blunted, and it is the world’s most vulnerable children who will pay the price for it.
Ismail* is one such student preparing for his national exam. He says:
“I am very nervous. If I pass, I will be the first person in my family to complete primary school. My father is still fighting in the war across the border in the mountains. The last time I saw him was 2 years ago. He told me he was fighting so that I could get the education he was not allowed to have. I hope I can make him proud by graduating.”
HOW YOU CAN HELP
If 150 people who are reading this start giving at least $10 a month, it will be just enough to sustain these teachers and students through the pandemic.
In March, Operation Broken Silence set out to recruit 200 new supporters who give at least $10 a month to meet these needs. We are now at 25% of our goal. This is progress, but it’s not nearly enough. Giving monthly is the best way to help. Please sign up right now. The futures of so many students just like Ismail depend on it.
If you are not in a position to give monthly, could you start a fundraising campaign or make a one-time donation? We cannot emphasize enough that every penny counts right.
*Name has been changed for safety reasons.
COVID-19 Update
There are no reported coronavirus cases in Yida Refugee Camp right now; however, the disease is spreading rapidly in Sudan and South Sudan.
While Yida is an isolated place, the likelihood of the pandemic reaching the area is growing. As the pandemic bears down on Yida, it is important that our teachers are not anxious about how they will support their families.
ABOUT NUBA
The Nuba Mountains are home to roughly 100 African tribal groups who have lived there for over 2,000 years.
The one million Christian, Muslim, and traditionalist Nuba people live in harmony together.
Sadly, the Nuba way of life has been in danger for decades. Sudan’s military and extremist regime officials have long viewed the Nuba people as a threat to their iron-fisted rule. The military and their extremist paramilitary allies have committed two genocides in the region since the 1990s.
Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in a military coup in April 2019. Sudan now has a fledgling transitional government that is supposed to be moving the country toward civilian, democratic rule. This new government has not lifted the humanitarian blockade on the Nuba Mountains, nor has a permanent peace been achieved. A fragile ceasefire is in place right now, but war clouds still loom over the Nuba Mountains.
Operation Broken Silence focuses on the Nuba Mountains and nearby Yida Refugee Camp. We are the only organization in the world providing assistance to refugee teachers here. Your generous support is essential for teachers to get the resources they need. Learn more about our mission here.