Sudan militiamen prevent vigil calling for return of internet

On Thursday, a large force of Sudan’s main militia, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), surrounded the National Telecommunications Tower in Khartoum, to prevent a planned protest demanding the return of internet services in the country. Internet connections via international roaming chips have been cut-off as well.

The RSF force arrived in 16 Land Cruisers and cordoned the tower immediately, the telecommunications branch of the Sudanese Professionals Association reported in a statement on Thursday.

A large number of security agents in civilian clothes searched people approaching the tower in order to identify the organisers of the protest vigil, the statement reported.

Staff of the telecommunication companies Zain, El Sudani, MTN, Kanar, and Huawei were to take part in the vigil.

Chips

Various activists told Radio Dabanga that internet connections via international roaming chips have been cut-off as well. They consider the suspension of the internet as “an attempt to isolate the Sudanese people from the world and a violation of the right to communicate”.

On June 10, the Transitional Military Council ordered the shut-down of the internet in the country for an indefinite period of time, claiming it forms a threat to national security.

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