The Sudanese Foreign Ministry said that the Rapid Support Forces took control of the main centers of (French) telecommunications companies.

The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that in the past few days, the Rapid Support Forces cut off telephone communications and the Internet in large parts of the country.

The statement issued yesterday, Monday, added, "This crime has catastrophic effects on the economic and humanitarian conditions, and will exacerbate the ongoing suffering of civilians."

The statement indicated that cutting off communications and Internet services means stopping bank transfers and digital financial services, which have become the lifeline for a large segment of citizens in light of the cessation of many economic activities and means of making a living. It added that it hinders the flow of humanitarian services, including treatment, aid, and efforts to rescue the stranded, as well as It was impossible to communicate between the Sudanese inside and outside the country and between the different states.

The statement considered that what it called the "criminal behavior of the militia" provides "new evidence that it is implementing a complete plan, under the supervision of its external sponsors, to destroy the infrastructure and components of the state in Sudan, which it uses foreign mercenaries to implement," according to its description.

The statement noted that the Rapid Support Forces had previously seized the main centers of telecommunications companies, and accused them of "looting and sabotaging a large number of telecommunications company branches and equipment, especially in the states of Darfur, which caused long-term damage to the networks there."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the international community, international, regional and humanitarian organizations, and the governments of countries interested in achieving peace in Sudan to condemn “this barbaric crime,” according to the statement.

Cut off from the world

An expert and former official in the Sudanese Communications Authority had told Al Jazeera that the Rapid Support Forces had already ordered the Sudanese and MTN Communications companies to cut off communication and Internet services for 36 million subscribers in the country, because Sudatel was unable to maintain the fiber optic network cable for Darfur. Due to the war, which led to a number of Darfur states being cut off from telecommunications and Internet services.

The former official in the Communications Authority - who preferred to withhold his name - confirmed that the Rapid Support Forces control the areas where the main servers of the two companies are located, and warned that the problem goes beyond the interruption of communications and the Internet to affect banking applications, and closing the main servers randomly or sabotaging them makes it difficult to operate. Restarting may cause Sudan to be completely cut off from the world for a long period.

Workers in telecommunications companies in Sudan told Al Jazeera that telecommunications and Internet services face security and logistical problems that caused the suspension of two of the main telecommunications companies in the country, in addition to the exit of entire states from coverage.

The former official expected that the Kuwaiti company Zain (the largest operator in Sudan) would join the South African companies “Sudani” and “MTN,” which represents a dangerous development in the course of the war and a clear violation of human rights, he said.

Sudanese human rights organizations and activists expressed their concern that the ongoing Internet outage, for the third day in a row, would affect the humanitarian situation in the country and create conditions for committing new crimes.

Since mid-April 2023, the Sudanese army, led by the President of the Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) - who was Vice-President of the Sovereignty Council before the outbreak of the conflict - have been waging a war that has left more than 13,000 dead and more than 7 million displaced. A refugee, according to the United Nations.

Source: Al Jazeera