Don Cheadle, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Jerry Weintraub have announced a partnership with Google, the U.N., and several anti-genocide organizations to launch a satellite surveillance project to monitor the Sudan region. No, this isn’t another Ocean’s Eleven sequel, it’s a move by a group called Not On Our Watch to help prevent genocide and civil war in the Sudan region. These high-profile actors are the co-founders of the group.
Not On Our Watch is funding the startup phase of the Satellite Sentinel Project which plans to collect near-real-time satellite imagery from Sudan and combine it with field analysis from several other humanitarian organizations, including the Enough Project and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.
Clooney serves as the face and voice of the movement. Saying in a press statement:
“We want to let potential perpetrators of genocide and other war crimes know that we’re watching, the world is watching. War criminals thrive in the dark. It’s a lot harder to commit mass atrocities in the glare of the media spotlight”
According to ReadWriteWeb, this is another example of real-time mapping technologies being used to “prevent and respond to crises.” The group will use the satellite imagery to gauge impending conflict and hopefully warn citizens ahead of time.
Southern Sudan will soon vote on a secession referendum, which raises fears of a north-south civil war.