CNN’s Clarissa Ward revealed that she and her team were held captive by a militia for two days while reporting in Darfur.
The veteran correspondent, 44, traveled to Sudan to report on the civil war that has sparked a massive humanitarian crisis, with more than 26 million people facing famine.
But within hours of arriving in northern Darfur, Ward and his team were detained by a militia led by a man calling himself “the general,” as he wrote for cnn.
Ward, cameraman Scott McWhinnie and producer Brent Swails were inside a vehicle when they were surrounded by armed combatants who violently yelled at them not to film the scene.
As Ward’s producer, Brent Swails, attempted to calm the situation, the general grabbed a rifle and fired a bullet, apparently aiming at a bird.
CNN’s Clarissa Ward revealed that she and her team were held captive by a militia for two days while reporting in Darfur. She is shown smiling awkwardly with her cameraman Scott McWhinnie and one of her captors after they were told they would be released.
Cameraman McWhinnie, Ward and producer Brent Swails were held captive for 48 hours.
“I was relieved that the gun wasn’t pointed at us, but I was still bothered by his erratic behavior,” Ward wrote of the terrifying experience.
Ward had been invited to the city of Tawila by the SLM-AW, a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, which is a neutral party in the civil war.
Tawila is only 52 kilometers from the war front, in the city of El Fasher, so it has become a refuge for those fleeing the massacre.
However, when she and her team arrived at the agreed meeting place in the city of Aby Gamra, they encountered rival militia and two trucks carrying rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
The team’s driver was taken in chains to the city jail and the team was interrogated, individually, for three hours in a “small windowless room.”
The crew was met by rival militia and two trucks carrying rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
The crew was then held for two days under the surveillance of armed men, some of them as young as 14 years old.
When the general fired his gun again while shouting at the crew, Ward pleaded with him, saying, “I am a mother.” I have three small children. She is seen with her children
After interrogation, Ward and his team were placed in their vehicle and ordered to follow a convoy deeper into Darfur.
When the general fired his gun again while shouting at the crew, Ward pleaded with him, saying, “I am a mother.” I have three small children.
A security chief responded: “Don’t be scared… We are human beings.”
The man then asked the CNN team for the phone numbers of his loved ones so he could reassure them that they were okay.
The militia then called the crew’s relatives and told them they were safe, while threatening that they could be detained for many years if they talked to anyone about the situation.
The crew was then held for two days under the surveillance of armed men, some of them as young as 14 years old. Ward said he spent his time in captivity “out in the open, under the acacia trees.”
Ward said he spent his time in captivity “out in the open, under the acacia trees.”
The UN estimates that 20,000 people have been killed and thousands injured since the conflict began. The war has also displaced more than 10 million people, including 2.4 million who fled to neighboring countries and other nations. A displaced Sudanese woman rests inside a shelter in Zamzam camp, northern Darfur.
“As the only woman, and with no private space to relieve myself, I limited my food and water intake,” Ward wrote of her time in military custody.
“When sleep came, it was a mercy, a relief from the painful feeling of panic of not knowing when I would be able to see my children again.”
Fortunately, after 48 hours, the general informed the CNN team that they were being let go and the general said, “We thought you were spies, but now you can go home.”
“A wave of relief went through my body,” Ward said. ‘There were smiles and handshakes with our captors. We posed awkwardly for a photograph on the edge of the mat that had been our makeshift prison.
The crew was relieved to be freed, but they never reached Tawila, their original destination.
The war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces broke out in April 2023 in the capital, Khartoum, and has spread throughout the country. Particularly intense fighting has occurred in Darfur.
The UN estimates that 20,000 people have been killed and thousands injured since the conflict began.
The war has also displaced more than 10 million people, including 2.4 million who fled to neighboring countries and other nations.