Alexander Lewis
Feb 08, 2024
War-hit Sudan has been experiencing internet breakdown for the past few days during the ongoing civil war in the country.
The Northeast African country has undergone multiple internet blackouts during the actively enraged 10-month long war being fought between the country's army and paramilitary.
Locals believe that the all power cuts and internet blockades were intentionally inflicted upon the country in order to drop the communications, as per a BBC report.
Read more: Why does my internet keep going out?
Although state-owned media wing has blamed the state-owned media wing has blamed the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), it has denied responsibility. RSF is a paramilitary force which is primarily composed of the Janjaweed militias fighting on behalf of the Sudanese government.
NetBlocks, a regulatory body that monitors internet services globally, posted on X (formerly Twitter) about the internet disruptions, stating in tweet, "new collapse of internet connectivity" in Sudan.
The latest internet crisis has surfaced after Sudanese hacktivist group attacked Uganda for welcoming the RSF leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Some individuals in Sudan have reported experiencing difficulties in accessing the internet since Friday, and the situation has since deteriorated. NetBlocks has identified disruptions in the services of internet providers Uganda Telecom and MTN. Meanwhile, a BBC reporter in Kampala stated that they did not observe any issues.
However, the Sudan Tribune news site reported that an RSF official accused the army of giving direct orders to cut off communication in certain regions, including Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum, and Gezira states, which are predominantly controlled by the paramilitary group.
NetBlocks also reported that one of Sudan's major mobile operators, Zain, is "largely offline".
In a post on Facebook, Zain stated that it was "working under very difficult, harsh, and dangerous circumstances". "Current network outage is due to circumstances beyond its will," it added.
On Friday, both South African-owned MTN Sudan and state-owned Sudani were reported to be operating at zero by NetBlocks. The network outage further exacerbates the challenges faced by a nation in conflict.
