Amsterdam-based radio for Sudan at risk after USAID cuts : NPR
On October 16, journalist Elamin Babow reads the latest headlines in the offices of Radio Dabanga in Amsterdam. The station is a lifeline for Sudanese trying to get information about their war-torn country.
Indy Scholtens for NPR
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Indy Scholtens for NPR
AMSTERDAM — When Radio Dabanga abruptly shut down its morning broadcasts earlier this year due to budget shortfalls, the station’s editor-in-chief, Kamal Elsadig, knew the consequences would reach far beyond the walls of his modest Amsterdam office.
Messages began pouring in almost immediately from Sudanese listeners who rely on the exile-run station as their only reliable link to the outside world.
“We don’t know what is happening to our families and we depend a lot on Radio Dabanga,” a listener wrote to the station from a refugee camp in eastern Chad. Another war-torn Sudanese appealed: “We hope the morning service will resume soon. This is important for us in Northern Sudan. »
A poster announcing a fundraiser for Radio Dabanga, a station dedicated to news from Sudan, on the window of a restaurant in Amsterdam, October 22.
Indy Scholtens for NPR
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Radio Dabanga is the last independent Sudanese news station, broadcasting since 2008 from its exile some 3,000 kilometers from Amsterdam. For millions of Sudanese living through a deadly civil war, it is a rare source of verified information. But its future is uncertain.
Earlier this year, President Trump cut most U.S. foreign aid programs. Because U.S. aid accounts for more than half of the station’s nearly $3 million budget, the station has had to temporarily cut its staff, freelancers and even its morning news service.
“They say: what’s happening? We haven’t heard from Dabanga today,” Elsadig recalls. “Is there a problem? Please tell us, because that’s the only way we can get information.”
A country in the dark
The war in Sudan has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. In 2023, fighting breaks out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces. Since then, fighting has killed 150,000 people and forced around 14 million Sudanese from their homes, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. It is difficult to obtain statistics as fighting continues and severe famine rages in part of the country.
And in the midst of a crisis, access to information is rare. According to a report by Free Press Unlimited, an international press organization based in Amsterdam, around 90% of media infrastructure has been destroyed in Sudan. More than 400 journalists have fled the country. And according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, more than a dozen journalists and media workers have been killed or kidnapped. “So Sudan is left completely in the dark when it comes to access to information,” Elsadig said.
From Amsterdam, Radio Dabanga journalists are trying to shed light on this disastrous situation. They report on where fighting has broken out, outbreaks in refugee camps and the aftermath of recent atrocities, such as those committed in the Sudanese town of El-Fasher.
“Radio Dabanga has become a lifeline for all Sudanese,” Elsadig said.
Radio in exile
Kamal Elsadig, editor-in-chief of Radio Dabanga, sits in his office in Amsterdam on October 16.
Indy Scholtens for NPR
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The soft-spoken Elsadig, aged around 60, arrived in the Netherlands in 2008 from El-Fasher to found Radio Dabanga, an independent radio station for Darfur, an arid region in western Sudan.
Darfur was at the epicenter of a conflict between the government-backed Arab Janjaweed militia and African ethnic groups in 2003 and 2004. The violence led to genocide, according to the U.S. government and human rights groups; In October, the International Criminal Court in The Hague convicted Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, a Janjaweed leader, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, two decades after the atrocities.
Many Sudan observers fear history will repeat itself. The Rapid Support Forces, descended directly from the Janjaweed, are now accused of massacres, sexual violence and famine sieges in communities in western and central Sudan.
As the war takes place in an environment where information is difficult to obtain, the survival of Radio Dabanga appears all the more critical to its listeners.
Collect money away from home
People listen to a panel discussion during an event called “Breaking the Silence for Sudan”, organized to help raise funds for Radio Dabanga, in Amsterdam October 22.
Indy Scholtens for NPR
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On a recent evening in Amsterdam’s northern industrial district, the contrast was stark. The air was filled with laughter, chatter and techno music. It was the first day of the Amsterdam Dance Event, or ADE: one of the largest annual electronic music events in the world, for which thousands of people descended on the city, slaloming on their bikes towards their various destinations.
But at a nearby riverside café, Jean-Pierre Fisher, 32, organized a fundraiser for Radio Dabanga. Fisher is co-founder of Marimba Amsterdam, an organization that focuses on the city’s African diaspora. “Every ADE, the first day of the ADE, we choose a topic,” Fisher said. “Something we think needs to be created awareness for.” This time it was Sudan.
A panel consisting of a journalist from Radio Dabanga, activists from Amsterdam and the co-founders of Marimba discussed the latest news coming out of Sudan and why it is important to keep Dabanga on the air.
Participants included Maaza and Amany Altareeh, Sudanese sisters who came to the Netherlands to seek asylum three years ago. Although they both have lives and jobs here, their family remains in Sudan, increasingly isolated as communications networks collapse.
“It’s really difficult to reach them because there’s no internet, there’s no satellites,” said Maaza Altereeh, 33. The only way to reach people in Sudan is via Starlink satellite internet, which is only possible if someone in the neighborhood has one, she said.
A DJ plays music during the ‘Breaking the Silence for Sudan’ fundraiser at Van De Werf restaurant during the Amsterdam dance event on October 22.
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Maaza Altareeh gets most of her information from the social media platform X. But she is never sure what is real. This is why Radio Dabanga is different, she says.
“Every time we see a piece of news, we try to remember [onto] this,” she said. “It’s still happening in Sudan: people are starving, dying and being killed, kidnapped, assaulted, all these things. And it’s important that radio is the last resort, since there are no more televisions now, there are no newspapers…”
The fundraiser gave the sisters hope. “Honestly, I was so happy to know that there are people who are not even Sudanese and who care, it’s very special to me,” said Maaza Altareeh. His sister Amany, 27, couldn’t wait to send a message to their father – who is still in Sudan – about the fundraiser. “Honestly, I took a lot of pictures, and I can’t wait to go show him and say, look, this is all happening, a lot of people still care.”
A few thousand dollars have already been raised. The radio budget deficit is approximately $1.5 million. Dabanga’s budget runs out in April. The radio believes that its online website could continue to operate. But since most Sudanese listeners depend on radio, said editor-in-chief Elsadig, much more is at stake than the future of the dozen journalists who work in the Amsterdam studio. Many Sudanese people risk dying, he added, if they lose reliable information during war.
But Elsadig is determined. “We will continue to fight on this and we will remain hopeful,” he said.
