Clooney shows effects of Sudan violence

George Clooney and Enough Project just released a graphic video showing the results of the militia attacks along the contested border between North and South Sudan.

The video taken on the ground shows still smoldering thatched huts that were torched and a seriously wounded, perhaps dying, man, who is a member of the southern Sudan police force. The video is of the villages of Maker Abior and Todach.

Clooney's Satellite Sentinel Project has already released photos taken by DigitalGlobe satellites, that showed evidence that these border villages had been deliberately burned.

Now Clooney and company are following that up with these harrowing imaages from the ground.

Take a look at the video, but be warned: It is graphic.

Clooney, his satellite project and Enough are keeping up the pressure in order to keep Sudan's peace project on track.

They suspected there would be violence along the contested border between North and South Sudan and they set up the satellite project and a video team to document it. Now it is happening. This evidence will put considerable pressure on the international community to send United Nations peacekeepers to maintain order along the border between North and South Sudan.

Why are the militia suspected loyal to Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir attacking villages along the border? To create chaos, to frighten away local villagers and to create a pretext to send in troops to seize the Abyei border area. Bashir wants this border area because it has significant oil deposits. That's what many Sudan experts say.

These are the same tactics that Bashir's militia used in the Darfur region of Sudan. So who is surprised that they are using the same violence again?

Clooney and the Enough Project team are showing the world the effects of the violence in real time in the hopes that the world will be forced to take action quickly.

"The on-the-ground footage, combined with DigitalGlobe imagery taken for the Satellite Sentinel Project, further corroborates the systematic destruction of villages that is taking place in the troubled Abyei region," said the Satellite Sentinel Project. "The video shows the need to keep diplomatic pressure on northern and southern Sudanese leaders to find a solution to Abyei’s problems without backsliding into conflict."