CNN Crew Shares ‘Harrowing Experience’ Of Militia Captivity While Covering Sudanese Civil War

OAN Staff Blake Wolf
12:15 PM – Wednesday, October 23, 2024

CNN’s chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, recently revealed that she and her team were held captive in Sudan by a militia for multiple days as they traveled to report on the civil war.

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Ward stated that she had been invited into the town of Tawila by members of the Sudan Liberation Movement, which is considered a neutral party in the war.

The war initially broke out in April of 2023 between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces, which initially was confined to the capital city of Khartoum, before spreading across the country.

Ward, cameraman Scott McWhinnie, and producer Brent Swails traveled to the country in the hopes of interviewing refugees. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, over 10.2 million people have been displaced and 26 million are facing famine due to the ongoing conflict, with no clear end in sight.

Following the CNN crew’s arrival, the team was surrounded by a rival militia, armed with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades.

Ward’s team was inside of a vehicle as they were surrounded by militia members who aggressively told the crew not to film. Swails then attempted to de-escalate the situation, which the militia responded to by firing a round into the air.

“I was relieved that the gun wasn’t pointed at us but still disturbed by [the] erratic behavior,” Ward recounted.

The crew was then detained and taken to a local jail, led by a man who identified himself as “the general,” where they were interrogated for around three hours in a “small, windowless room.”

Ward stated that she “answered their questions but got no information in return: who these men were or what they wanted with us,” later revealing that the militia believed the crew were foreign spies.

Following the interrogation, the crew was taken further into Darfur, where the general fired off another round and screamed at the crew while Ward pleaded for her life. “I am a mother. I have three little boys!” she asserted.

An English speaking member of the militia security informed the crew that everything would be okay, adding that: “Later, we would find out that an English speaker had called my husband and Scott’s wife from the city of Port Sudan, thousands of miles away from where we were held, to say that we were safe and in good health but threatening that we would be imprisoned for many years if they spoke about it to anyone.”

The crew was then held in captivity by armed guards for two days, waiting for the militia to clear their release.

“For the next 48 hours, we were held under armed guard by the general, the security chief and roughly a dozen soldiers, some who looked no older than 14. Our detention was spent out in the open, underneath acacia trees. As the only woman, and with no private space to relieve myself, I limited my water and food intake. Sleep, when it came, was a mercy, a reprieve from the clawing sense of panic at not knowing when I would be able to see my children again,” she added.

The crew was eventually told they would be released the next day, even posing for a photo with the security chief as they were relieved to finally be heading home.