Eyes and Ears Nuba reporters have secured video footage of uniformed men torching Um Bartumbu, a village in Southern Kordofan.

The footage comes from a cell phone that the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) forces found in the pocket of a soldier killed in battle in Rashad County, in the northeastern region of Southern Kordofan. The dead soldier was fighting for the Sudan government.

Our reporters believe the men in this video belong to the Sudan Armed Forces for several reasons:

1.    some of the men speak are speaking Sudanese Arabic with a Bagarra accent—a dialect which is specific to a tribe located in Southern Kordofan

2.    the men are of mixed tribes: Bagarra, Hawazma, Falata, and even Nuba; most militias consist of one tribe

3.    the men wear SAF uniforms and carry camo backpacks; when militia soldiers fight, some wear civilian clothes and some wear uniforms

4.    the men give orders in language typical of the national army

5.    Um Bartumbu is currently controlled by SPLM-N; this force came in, burned the village, and left; most of the SPLA-N forces in that area are from the region; it is unlikely that men from that region would burn a village they already had control of

6.    this video was taken prior to the alliance formation between the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) and SPLM-N, and therefore we can infer that anyone on the squad speaking Darfuri Arabic is fighting for the SAF, as there was no previous consortiums between the Darfuri and the Nuba

7.    the village of Um Bartumbu is 100% Nuba from the Nuba Lira tribe; almost 100% of that tribe supports the SPLM-N and voted for SPLM-N representation in last year’s election, making them a strong target for attack by the SAF

At the end of the video, the men state the name of their brigade or squad as “Katiba Kabreet,” which translates as “The Match Battalion.”

If these men belong to the SAF, this means the higher powers in the national army likely ordered the destruction.