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In a post on CNN, Ward details how she was on her way to Tawila, a town in Darfur, earlier this month to report on the ongoing humanitarian crisis. But as they arrived, she and her crew weren't welcomed by their host but confronted by heavily armed militia members, who believed they were spies.
The militia held them prisoner for two days until Ward and her producer convinced their captors that they were from CNN, not the CIA.
The British-born mother of three has reported from war zones across the globe, but the gravity and scale of devastation the Sudan civil war has had on the people who have not picked up arms is staggering.
"According to the (United Nations), more than 10 million people have been displaced in the violence, almost a quarter of Sudan’s population," she wrote. "More than 26 million people — over three times the population of New York City — face acute hunger."
Ward detailed the hellish conditions they endured and noted that many of the soldiers holding her captive at the warlord's orders were children. After two days, they were told that they would be freed.
Ward wrote she was relieved but lamented that she did not speak with the people of Tawila.
"Our ordeal was over," she wrote. "We were unharmed and soon to return home. The fear and worry quickly replaced by a feeling of bitter disappointment, of failure. We never made it to Tawila. Never managed to talk to the people in Darfur whose lives have been chewed up by this vicious civil war. Untold stories that the world may never hear."
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