Sudan experiences widespread internet outage amidst war and accusation

February 5, 2024 (PORT SUDAN) – Since Friday evening, internet and communication networks have been disrupted across most of Sudan. The cause of the outage remains unclear, with accusations flying between the Sudanese government and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF, controlling areas where major infrastructure for Sudani and MTN-Sudan network operations reside, reportedly disrupted the network to protest the companies’ inaction on a communication issue affecting Darfur for months.

An RSF official, however, denied responsibility for the outage, instead pointing the finger at the army. He linked the current shutdown to ongoing military operations. The official further accused the army of issuing direct orders to sever communication in parts of Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum, and Al-Jazirah states for months.

While both Sudani and MTN face complete service disruptions, Zain remains partially operational in some areas, leaving the reason for this inconsistency unexplained. Zain was disrupted in Port Sudan on Sunday evening but it was restored on Monday morning.

Digital Rights Lab – Sudan, a watchdog organization, claims sources confirmed the RSF taking over data centres of internet service providers (ISPs) in Khartoum.

Independent internet monitors like NetBlocks and IODA have documented the disruption since Friday, February 2nd. Their reports detail major issues affecting multiple providers, with MTN and Sudatel experiencing severe connectivity disruptions.

The internet monitor, NetBlocks, on Friday, reported the major disruption to multiple internet providers in Sudan.

” MTN Sudan reports service failures due to circumstances beyond their control,” said NetBlock in a short statement on the X platform.

For its part, the Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA) project reported on Sunday that Sudan’s internet connectivity signals dropped Friday, Feb 2nd at ~4:30 PM local time. MTN and Sudatel connectivity are severely disrupted.

The internet blackout adds another layer of hardship to a nation already struggling with conflict. Lack of communication hampers information flow hinders business activities, and disrupts essential services, several commentators underscored.

(ST)