Investigation Walkthrough with Dabanga & Bellingcat: Child Soldiers on TikTok in Sudan's Civil War

In this Investigation Walkthrough, Amgad Abdelgadir (Dabanga) and Sebastian Vandermeersch (Bellingcat) will present their recent story concerning the online trend of TikTok videos of child soldiers in Sudan's civil war. From identifying and verifying open sources to publishing the story online, Abdelgadir and Vandermeersch will discuss the process of building the investigation, the kinds of expertise it required, and the ethical challenges it posed for them as investigators.

The discussion will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Dr David Young (King's College London), and light refreshments will be provided after the event.

The session is part of the Digital Investigations Lab's events programme, and is supported by the Centre for Digital Culture. 

About the speakers:

Amgad Abdelgadir is a multimedia journalist with Radio Dabanga, reporting on the war and human rights in Sudan. He has interviewed political and civil society leaders and contributed to international coverage, including BBC Africa, to strengthen global coverage of Sudan and amplify the voices of affected communities.

Sebastian Vandermeersch is a researcher at Bellingcat, specialising in terrorism and civilian harm in conflict. He has investigated violence and human rights abuses in the Middle East and West Africa. He previously worked at BBC Verify, the Centre for Information Resilience, and the International Criminal Court.

Dr David Young is a Lecturer in Digital Media and Culture in the Department of Digital Humanities, KCL. He is currently leading the AHRC Catalyst-funded research project "Assembling Certainty", which examines how accounts of war are produced using “open sources” in visual investigations and critically explores the implications of machine learning in civilian casualty recording.