Additional Context: This information was collected as part of The Aid Report’s original reporting, “‘We lost their voices’: Sudan radio program falls silent after US aid cuts.” This feature story examines how U.S. aid cuts canceled a radio broadcast that had served Sudanese civilians both as a source of real-time safety information and as a channel to report missing persons, food, water, and shelter needs — intelligence that humanitarian responders relied on to direct assistance where it was most needed.

This information was provided by Peter, the editor-in-chief of Radio Tamazuj, who asked to go by a pseudonym for security reasons. The radio station had been supported since 2023 by USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives covering shortwave broadcast support, monitoring and evaluation capacity, online presence, and fundraising. The latest grant provided the station $425,000 over six months and was expected to be renewed. Without U.S. support, shortwave broadcasts, which cost about $70,000 annually, could not be maintained.

Once reaching an estimated two million people, the radio station's reporters hosted a daily news bulletin and talk show covering the humanitarian crisis, safe transit routes, activist arrests, and ongoing discussions among militants. They also travelled to refugee camps to report on the perspectives and needs of displaced people, verified claims made by armed groups to ensure the safety of listeners, and kept an open phone line for civilians to report on the humanitarian situation in their locations.

Source: Devex