Battleland

Clooney’s Satellites Capture Piles of Bodies, Mass Graves in Sudan

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Comparison: 17 June - 4 July 2011

George Clooney’s Satellite Sentinel Project set up to monitor the spiraling violence in Sudan has a stunning report out today with convincing evidence showing “a campaign of systematic mass killing of civilians in Kadugli, South Kordofan” in the south-central area of the country. TIME was the first to write about Clooney’s project.

The group combined eyewitness reports and DigitalGlobe satellite imagery to pinpoint what seem almost certainly to be piles of bodies in Kadguli and mass graves south of there. The group cites four eyewitness accounts of Sudan Armed Forces from northern Sudan and related militias searching houses in the town and “systematically killing” civilians suspected of supporting southern Sudan forces.

The report describes the slitting of one civilian’s throat and sealing and burning homes with civilians inside.

Eyewitnesses also describe the mass graves, shown above, dug by a yellow earth mover on June 8 less than a mile south of the Tilo School in Kadugli. The pits are about 26 meters long and 5 meters wide. Large green trucks were seen driving to the site and unloading around 100 bodies.

Witnesses say before being buried in the mass grave, some of the bodies were wrapped in white plastic and piled up in Kadugli. The group captured what seem to be a pile of those bodies, too. See below.

Bodies piled up in Kadugli