Sudan has Returned Internet Access—But to Just One Individual
With the exception of a lawyer who won his court case against the country's telecoms operator, the country is still without internet access.
Sudan has been experiencing severe internet restrictions over the past three weeks which have almost entirely resulted in an internet shutdown. This comes after the deadly crackdown by the military in Khartoum which resulted in over 100 Sudanese protesters losing their lives.
Whilst the past few weeks have seen the worldwide social media campaign#BlueforSudan raise awareness around the worsening crisis in Sudan, Sudanese civilians themselves have been without internet access for the most part.
Abdel-Adheem Hassan, a lawyer in Sudan, won his court case against telecoms operator Zain Sudan which alleges it was instructed to carry out the internet shutdown by military leaders. However, Hassan is now fighting for the internet to be restored to the rest of the country.
According to reports from Reuters and the BBC, a court in Sudan ruled against the internet shutdown. However, the ruling has changed nothing. Hassan said, "We have a court session tomorrow and another one the day after tomorrow. Hopefully one million people will gain internet access by the end of the week."
The Transitional Military Council (TMC), which has been in power since the ousting of former President Omar al-Bashir in April, has become exactly what Sudan's civic society feared most—a regime as bad if not worse than that of al-Bashir.
Whilst the TMC announced that they would scrap the three-year power-transfer deal they'd initially proposed and hold elections within the next nine months, their most recent actions appear to be communicating otherwise.