AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
In the Netherlands, reporters from Africa are trying to inform people in a country torn by war, where there are daily signs pointing to genocide - Sudan. Radio Dabanga is lifesaving listening for many, and it's the last independent media outlet broadcasting news to Sudan from abroad. Foreign aid cuts by both the Dutch and American governments make its future uncertain, as Indy Scholtens reports.
INDY SCHOLTENS: In a quiet office in the outskirts of Amsterdam, over 3,000 miles from his home country, reporter Elamin Babow is reading the headlines in Arabic.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ELAMIN BABOW: (Speaking Arabic).
SCHOLTENS: Every morning and evening, Radio Dabanga brings the latest news to listeners in Sudan and Sudanese refugees in neighboring countries. A dozen people work in the office, surrounded by high rises.
KAMAL ELSADIG: We telling people in this giving informations where to go because there is a war. You can know where to go. Where is the dangerous area? What is the best road you can go to to save your life?
SCHOLTENS: That's Kamal Elsadig. He's the editor-in-chief of Radio Dabanga. Elsadig founded the radio station in 2008, when another war was forcing journalists like him into exile. Almost two decades later, his country is in crisis again.
ELSADIG: Inside Sudan is one of the biggest refugee and displacement of the people around the world.
SCHOLTENS: In 2023, fighting erupted between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces. Since then, about 14 million Sudanese have been forced to leave their homes, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, which also says at least 150,000 have died. But it's hard to get accurate data, as there's barely any news coming out of Sudan.
ELSADIG: I think it's 90% of media houses in Sudan destroyed it - 90%. No newspaper. No TV. No radio. So the Sudan is become completely in a darkness.
SCHOLTENS: Many journalists have fled the country. Others have been kidnapped or killed.
ELSADIG: Radio Dabanga now is become a lifeline for all Sudanese.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BABOW: (Speaking Arabic).
SCHOLTENS: That lifeline may be cut off soon. At the beginning of the year, President Trump froze and ended most USAID projects. USAID made up more than half of the radio's budget of almost $3 million. Dabanga has cut staff, freelancers and even airtime.
ELSADIG: We stopped the morning broadcasting because of the shorting of funding. We receive messages and voices messages from different area of Sudan. They're saying, what's going on? We didn't hear Dabanga today. Is there any problem is happening? Please tell us because this is the only way we get to get informations.
SCHOLTENS: Dabanga reinstated their morning news show, but funding from the Dutch foreign ministry might not be extended for the next budget year.
JEAN-PIERRE FISHER: Hello, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to our panel, our event to break the silence for the Sudan.
SCHOLTENS: Jean-Pierre Fisher is a co-founder of Marimba, an Amsterdam association that celebrates African culture. Today is the first evening of the annual festival called Amsterdam Dance Event - or ADE - with half a million in attendance over five days. So a great place to get the message out.
FISHER: Each ADE - the first day of the ADE, we choose a subject, something that we think awareness needs to be created for.
SCHOLTENS: Maaza and Amany Altareeh are attending the fundraiser tonight in a hip riverside cafe. The Sudanese sisters came to the Netherlands for asylum three years ago. They both have a life and jobs here, but all of their family is still in Sudan.
AMANY ALTAREEH: It is really difficult to reach them because there are no internet. There are no satellites. Like, generally, if you have to call someone, they will have to have, like, one of these Starlinks, basically, phones, which are really rare. So yeah. We sometimes get ahold of them when they know that someone in the neighborhood have, like, a Starlink, and then they can contact us in a sense.
SCHOLTENS: Maaza Altareeh says she gets most of her news from the social media platform X, but she says she's never sure of what she reads there. Radio Dabanga is different.
MAAZA ALTAREEH: Anytime that we see any type of news, we try to hold that and try to make it for the people to know that, OK, look, this is still - this is happening in Sudan. It's happening in this region. People are starving and dying and being killed, kidnapped, assaulted, all of these things. And it is important for the radio, as the last stand, since there are no televisions now. There are no newspapers.
SCHOLTENS: The fundraiser gives the sisters some hope.
M ALTAREEH: To know that there are people who are not even Sudanese are - care about it, it's very special to me. I'm sure if Sudanese also people knew this, it's going to be so happy for them to know that.
A ALTAREEH: I can't wait to go back and tell my dad about it honestly.
M ALTAREEH: I, honestly (laughter)...
A ALTAREEH: I took plenty of pictures, and I can't wait to go and show him and be like, look, all of this is happening. A lot of people still care.
M ALTAREEH: It's going to make him so happy 'cause he keeps saying...
SCHOLTENS: So far, just a few thousand dollars have been raised. The radio's budget shortfall is around 1 1/2 million. But back in the studio, Elsadig is determined.
ELSADIG: We will continue fighting on this, and we will keep hoping.
SCHOLTENS: Dabanga's budget will run out in April. With the financial crisis looming, Elsadig says much more is at stake than the future of the dozen journalists who work here. Many Sudanese people may die, he says, for want of reliable information in a time of war.
For NPR News, I'm Indy Scholtens in Amsterdam.
(SOUNDBITE OF 3MALM'S "MINIMAL EASTER (TECH-HOUSE TO TECHNO OSTEREI DJ MIX)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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