Declan Walsh

Largely, it must be said, without being seen by the outside world.

As the Sudanese military pushed into new areas, we followed them.

and often came across residents who were emerging from their homes, kind of stunned.

We talked to this one man who'd seen his neighbor get gunned down by RSF fighters.

At one point, we found ourselves at a well that contained maybe a dozen bodies.

And we were told that these were people who had been killed by fighters at a nearby checkpoint and dumped there.

Well, as we went through the city, we found ourselves in the abandoned villas of some of the RSF leaders.

In one of them in particular, there were fighters lounging outside this empty swimming pool.

The house had an internal elevator, you know, sort of markings of wealth that were such a contrast with the scenes we were seeing outside.

And so as we walked through this house, I also found this sheaf of papers that evidently had been abandoned by the Orsath leaders as they left.

And when we examined them more closely, they turned out to be corporate documents related to gold mines run by the same armed group in the south of the country.

And this was a really important clue into what was funding a lot of the fighting.

We already knew that Sudan had a huge gold industry going back many years, but it was very difficult to get a sense of just how important it had become to these groups that were fighting for control and how much it was fueling the fight itself.

And here was this clue that really set us further along this track of trying to uncover what's really driving this destructive war in Sudan.

Well, look, you're absolutely right.

There is a strong parallel between the issue of blood diamonds that were so famous years ago from West Africa and the importance of gold in this conflict.

But, you know, Sudan's war is about many things.

The fight between these two generals exposed this much deeper rift in the country.

Tensions that go back to the genocide 20 years ago in Sudan that were never really healed.

And now they've become mixed with ethnic problems, political problems.