Data from satellites suggest violence has surged in much of Sudan
Sudan’s civil war is thought to have uprooted at least 3m people. Such estimates are highly imprecise, because so little information is available. Local journalists and activists have been besieged.Yet some witnesses are beyond the reach of Sudan’s warring factions: satellites flying over the country. Data from their instruments can provide evidence of war crimes, such as the burning of villages. NASA, America’s space agency, runs a satellite-based system called FIRMS, which detects places with unusually high temperatures. It was designed to track forest fires. Many more fires have been recorded in this year’s wet season than in those of the past decade.Satellite images confirm that fires detected in both Darfur, the site of the 21st century’s first genocide, and Khartoum stem from violence. High-resolution photos of areas where firms detected lots of fires show buildings burned to the ground.
Sudan’s civil war is thought to have uprooted at least 3m people. Such estimates are highly imprecise, because so little information is available. Local journalists and activists have been besieged.
Yet some witnesses are beyond the reach of Sudan’s warring factions: satellites flying over the country. Data from their instruments can provide evidence of war crimes, such as the burning of villages. NASA, America’s space agency, runs a satellite-based system called FIRMS, which detects places with unusually high temperatures. It was designed to track forest fires. Many more fires have been recorded in this year’s wet season than in those of the past decade.
Satellite images confirm that fires detected in both Darfur, the site of the 21st century’s first genocide, and Khartoum stem from violence. High-resolution photos of areas where firms detected lots of fires show buildings burned to the ground.
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