How Sudanese are Dealing With the Internet and Communications Blackouts

In front of the Bank of Khartoum headquarters in Port Sudan, Red Sea State, Sudan, stood 52-year-old Zainab Mirghani, confused, not knowing what to do next. The majority of commercial banks had closed their doors due to a total shutdown of communications and internet services in 14 out of 18 Sudanese states, since the beginning of February.

"I have been trying for more than a week to get my money from the bank so that I can support my children, but I was unable to get it due to the network outage, which caused me a problem with cash,” Mirghani, a lawyer affected by the shutdowns, told OkayAfrica, adding that not just banks, but various sectors of the economy have been left in a state of paralysis since the blackout.

NetBlox Observatory, which monitors internet service across the world, on February 7 said that the three main internet operators went out of service. It added that two networks were out of service for nearly a week.

Telecommunications and internet services in Sudan are covered by three networks: MTN, Zain Sudan, and Sudani, in addition to Canar network, which provides internet services only.

Network and internet services have partially returned as of Monday, February 12, as Sudani, the government-owned telecommunications company, set up a temporary data center in Port Sudan.

Muhammad Ali, the owner of a passenger bus on the Market-AlMirghaniyah line in the coastal city of Port Sudan, says that his daily living conditions were affected by the blackout. The number of passengers he transports daily has reduced, affecting his profits.

He added that the majority of buses today are crowded at the main bus stop in Port Sudan market and do not find a sufficient number of passengers to be able to move from the stop.

Finger pointing

State-aligned media have accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group that has been fighting the Sudanese army in a bloody war since April 15, of cutting off internet and telecommunication. RSF has denied responsibility, according to the BBC.

Al-Fateh Erwa, managing director of the Zain-Sudan telecommunications network, the largest telecommunications network in the country, said that the Rapid Support Forces cut off the company’s services by stopping the electricity generators at its main data center in Jabra area in Khartoum — which led to the cutting off of communications.

Erwa, in a video clip posted on social media, said that the service cut came at a time when the company began repairing and maintaining its network in Darfur state, which was damaged as a result of the conflict.

Erwa said that RSF demanded the restoration of services in Darfur as a prerequisite for restoring connection in the rest of the country. While Zain engineers were working to restore services, Erwa said the RSF persisted in shutting down electricity generators in their attempt to cut network access nationwide.

“The RSF holds the key to restoring the network,” Erwa was quoted as saying in the Sudan Tribune.

Erwa added that the network did not receive any instruction from any party to cut off service in Darfur, and said that the disruption was due to the war and the inability to deliver fuel, maintenance equipment, and secure work teams.

Legal implications

Legal expert Muhammad Al-Aas told OkayAfrica that cutting off internet and communications networks in Sudan is considered a war crime, punishable by international law. Al-Aas added that the infrastructure and institutions that concern the citizens should not be a pressure card used by both parties to the armed conflict in Sudan for their interests. He called on companies to adhere to their legal and contractual duty towards consumers by clarifying the facts, identifying those responsible, and trying to restore the network as soon as possible.

Alternative solutions

Former Minister of Communications, Hashim Hasab al-Rassoul, believes that communications outage in Sudan is an extremely dangerous matter and a humanitarian crime, especially given the circumstances of this devastating war, which has exacerbated the suffering even further.

He added, “There are alternative solutions for each company according to its technical plan, and each company must establish alternative disaster recovery data centers in Port Sudan or any other safe areas, indicating that communications services will gradually return according to the possibility, speed, and readiness of the establishment of these alternative centers.”

As the communications outages continued, many Sudanese resorted to Starlink, the global internet service provider that operates via satellite, in addition to terrestrial networks that connect homes via electricity poles.