The memoir of U.S. Marine Brian Steidle, The Devil Came on Horseback (Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com), is to be made into a feature film.

The book tells the story of the Marine witnessing the genocide and trying to smuggle pictures out of the country to give to the western papers and begin publicising the terrifying events.

The journalist David Freed has been hired to adapt the story which describes the events that the Marine witnessed while acting as an official observer in Darfur. However after he was prevented from intervening - an all too familiar story - he smuggled photographs of the horrifying events out of the country, something that put his own life at risk.

The original book was co-written by Steidle and Gretchen Steidle Wallace, with a documentary based on the book made by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg in 2007, also called The Devil Came on Horseback.

The shocking and saddening thing is that this sounds such a similar tale to Shake Hands with the Devil (Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com), the horrible story of General Roméo Dallaire who witnessed the genocide in Rwanda.

Shocking, harrowing, terrifying, all these words perhaps, but a story that should be told and seen? I most definitely believe so, and so I am glad of the news from the Hollywood Reporter that the adaptation deal was signed before the strike and a film version could well be coming.

How do you feel about such events, are these things you'd rather not see or hear about, or do you believe that the more they are known the less they'll be tolerated or allowed to continue?