Sudan journalists: ‘Fighting threatens 100-year-old media archives’

The Sudanese Journalists Syndicate (SJS) has expressed its concern that fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is approaching the buildings of the Sudan Radio and Television Corporation in Omdurman. The syndicate is concerned that the violence will increase the risk of destroying or damaging the corporation’s archives that are nearly 100 years old.

The SJS said in a statement yesterday that it has received information indicating that the SAF is advancing on the premises of the national radio and television. The RSF took control of the area within weeks after the war erupted on April 15 last year, and turned it into a detention centre, confirmed by testimonies from people who were detained there at the time.

The journalists expressed their concern about the danger of destroying or damaging the archives “which represent a political, cultural, and social legacy for the entire Sudanese nation” and called on the warring parties to spare the buildings.

The SJS pointed out that it is sounding the alarm bell for the second time since the outbreak of the war.

It directed its warnings also to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), and “all other organisations working in the field of preserving tangible and human heritage”, saying that “there is a real danger to the radio and television libraries” and called on all them to intervene with the two warring parties, to save this heritage, and protect it from loss.