Satellite photos showing the destruction caused by the war in Darfur, Sudan

A bloody civil war has been underway in Sudan for just over a year between the regular army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF): images from Google Earth, the Google application that allows you to explore the world with maps and photographs through satellite images clearly show the enormous destruction that the war has caused, especially in Darfur, the western region of the country.

The Google Earth images were analyzed by the London-based study center Center for Information Resilience (CIR), which deals with human rights and war crimes among other things, comparing them with those from a year ago, April 2023 (the clashes between the two armies began on 15 April 2023). In particular, on the X (Twitter) profile of Benjamin Strick, director of the CIR, the images referring to El Geneina, a city in West Darfur particularly affected by the fighting. Satellite photos show how large areas have been completely destroyed, how the area around the hospital has been burned in fires and how a number of warehouses have been completely dismantled.

Through other research, carried out together with the British newspaper Guardian Using heat sensing technologies from NASA (the US space agency), the CIR found that over 50 cities and towns were completely burned between February and March. These fires would be only a part of a much larger number: arson and deliberate fire is one of the warfare techniques used by armies. From the photos alone and in the absence of independent confirmation it is not possible to indicate which of the parties involved is responsible for the fires, whether the army or the paramilitary group RSF (which is a direct descendant of the Janjawida group of Arab militiamen of the Baggara ethnic group who during the 2003 war in Darfur were responsible for various war crimes, and according to many interpretations also for genocide).

The war in Sudan began in April 2023 after a long phase of political tensions between two generals, Abdel Fattah al Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti. At the time, the two led a military junta, the Sovereign Council, which governed the country since October 2021, after having seized power with a coup d’état: Burhan was president, Hemedti was his deputy. In a year of war, according to various estimates, including that of the NGO International Rescue Committee, the military clash between the two factions has caused at least 14,700 deaths, 30 thousand wounded and more than 8 million displaced people.

– Read also: A year of war in Sudan