Action from the international community for Sudanese who have endured years of violence has been slow. Since 2024 we’ve been investigating atrocities and racist violence committed by both sides of the conflict. Our goal is to draw attention to the drivers of this underreported conflict and surface evidence that can be used by those working toward accountability and justice.

A month after we published an investigation into atrocities by SAF and aligned forces against the Kanabi farming communities in Gezira State we learned that Saudi Arabia, SAF’s key backer, warned them to reduce civilian bloodshed, naming concerns about the reputational cost of further crimes. Sources told us this shift followed our investigation.

The biggest news came a few days later when we heard from sources that SAF aligned forces, after feeling the pressure from the international spotlight on their crimes, had stopped the violence against the Kanabi and were working on a process of reconciliation.

Our methodology on the Kanabi investigation is publicly available – we hope it can be used by researchers and journalists. We’ve also been conducting briefings for policymakers, foreign offices, legal experts, sanctions teams and international organisations about our findings.

The Assad regime hid hundreds of Syrian children in orphanages to extort their parents. In September we published an investigation exposing the scale of the abuse and the role of SOS International, a major European charity whose leadership knew for 7 years and remained silent.

Two weeks after publication SOS International responded publicly saying they were horrified by the reports, offered their apologies to the families and proposed safeguarding and accountability measures to ensure such abuses could not happen again, including reviewing board members for political ties. A few weeks later SOS Syria they had scaled back after all major funders pulled funding.

To ensure the investigation received attention in Damascus, and a response from Syria’s transitional government, we organised a screening of the documentary together with affected families, campaign groups, lawyers and children’s rights advocates. The screening was provided space to discuss the findings and how to ensure these violations would not be repeated.

Families who had their children taken from them traveled from across Syria to meet, discuss their demands and take them directly to a representative from the National Commission who attended the screening. Following the screening, the families met with the National Commission for Missing Persons and the Minister of Social Affairs to lay out their demands.

Hundreds of Afghans who served in special forces units that were funded, recruited and paid by the British had been denied relocation to the UK, despite compelling evidence of their service with the UK. As part of our Left Behind Series, we revealed that because of the British Government’s failure to come true to their promise to bring these Afghans to safety, dozens were tortured or murdered by the Taliban. 

Nearly a year after exposing the abandonment of Afghan commandos trained by UK special forces, the UK government admitted it was wrong, reversed its stance and began relocating members of the ‘Triples’ unit into the country. This seachange wouldn’t have been possible without campaigners who kept the story alive in the halls of power and legal advocates who supported asylum applicants.

 

LEFT BEHIND SERIES

US taxpayers funded a covert campaign to downplay the risks of pesticides and discredit environmentalists in Africa, Europe, and North America. We revealed that public money went to a PR firm ‘v-fluence’ to build profiles on hundreds of scientists, campaigners and writers, whilst coordinating with government officials, to counter global resistance to pesticides.

Just 4 months after our investigation, v-Fluence announced that it had removed the profiles of scientists and activists from its Bonus Eventus website. Both the USDA and pesticide industry trade group CropLife said that it would review contracts in place with v-Fluence. And in the months following our reporting, the firm also reportedly laid off dozens of employees after industry clients cancelled their contracts with the firm.

Our work on telecom network exploitation has helped choke off access to phone networks by commercial surveillance actors. Findings from our Flight of the Predator investigation contributed to the sanctioning of bad actors by the US Office of Foreign Asset Control. Our Ghost in the Network investigation led to a recommendation by the GSMA that its members cut off Andreas Fink’s access. Our exposure of Italian geolocation firm Tykelab led to a sudden decrease in traffic observed from it.