The internet and communications networks in Sudan, a North African country currently embroiled in a politically charged conflict, have been down for several days and are still down.
However, the cause of the confusion remains unclear. Accusations about who is responsible have been thrown back and forth between Sudan’s current leadership and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a government-owned militia.
In a civil war that lasted up to 10 months, these two factions have been engaged in what can be described as a struggle for supremacy. The situation has escalated into a major humanitarian crisis, displacing millions of people and attracting the attention of the United Nations.
In a new fallout, the RFS, which controls areas where key communications infrastructure is located, allegedly disrupted the networks of state-run Sudan and South African-owned MTN Sudan in protest over months of communications disruptions.
However, the RSF denies responsibility for the blackout and instead points the finger at its most formidable enemy, the Sudanese military. The organization’s officials blamed the outage on ongoing military operations, accusing the military of cutting off digital communications in parts of Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum and Al-Jazeera.
Digital Rights Lab, an independent non-political non-profit organization in Sudan, says it focuses on strengthening the local online space, although some sources say RSF is based in the country’s capital Khartoum. It is said to have taken over the data centers of some internet service providers.
Internet freedom watchdog NetBlocks reported a new breakdown in internet connectivity, saying that “major mobile phone company Zain is also now largely offline.” This means the situation has affected the war-torn country’s major telecommunications companies, leaving around 14 million internet users in the dark.
In a statement shared on Meta (formerly Facebook), Zain acknowledged that he is currently “operating under extremely difficult, harsh and dangerous conditions” and that the current power outage is due to circumstances beyond his control. He added.
As state media condemns the RSF, the hacktivist group commonly known as Anonymous Sudan has taken matters into its own hands, cracking down on other jurisdictions where it appears to have common ties with the militia.
Anonymous Sudan has launched a cyberattack on Djibouti Telecom, the Horn of Africa country’s major state-run mobile phone network operator. Due to the country’s alleged ties to RSF, the group has significantly disrupted telecommunications companies’ connectivity networks and taken subscribers offline.
But that’s not all. Anonymous Sudan has a grudge against Uganda for the same reason, throwing state-owned Uganda Telecom and MTN’s local arm into turmoil. However, reports suggest that Uganda Telecom has not been a very active internet service provider in recent years.
In April last year, following government instructions, MTN Sudan suspended its internet services to quell an armed conflict between the RSF and the national army that claimed the lives of hundreds of Sudanese.
In 2023, Sudan lost $12.4 million due to 212 hours of web censorship, affecting 4.8 million people in the country. It now joins other African countries such as the Comoros and Senegal that have had access restricted since the beginning of this year.
