Internet has been restored in Sudan after 3 weeks of shutdown, but for only one person who has been identified as Abdel-Adheem Hassan, a lawyer in the country.
According to the lawyer in Sudan, the internet was restored for only one person (him) after he won a lawsuit against telecoms operator Zain Sudan over the blackout ordered by Sudan’s military rulers.
Hassan who said he is currently the only civilian in the country able to access the internet without resorting to complicated hacks, disclosed that his victory is only benefiting him so far as he filed the case in a personal capacity.
“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,”Hassan said
Mobile internet connectivity was already largely offline across Sudan since 3 June after attacks on pro-democracy sit-ins in Khartoum, and the new disruptions represent a near-total blackout of connectivity for the majority of citizens.
The new outages come as death toll figures rise, with validated reports of over a hundred killed since the beginning of the month, amid arbitrary violence and predatory attacks targeting pro-democracy demonstrators attending sit-ins to demand a civilian-led government.
The military leadership admitted cutting internet, a practice that had been previously denied, providing additional context to NetBlocks’ incident reports. Emerging reports suggest that citizens have struggled to stay informed, reach safety and monitor extrajudicial killings, gender based violence and other human rights violations allegedly perpetrated in recent days.
