Vital food aid for some of Sudan’s poorest people has been halted due the country’s ongoing internet and phone blackout, Islamic Relief says.
Much of the country is affected by the blackout, which began 3 weeks ago (7 February) and has disrupted communication, bank transfers, electronic payments and vital humanitarian aid distributions. Islamic Relief staff describe banks in many areas as “totally non-functional” impacting trading and commercial activity, leaving people without money and markets empty.
Most people – especially the poorest and most vulnerable – continue to suffer badly from the outage. Some of the states worst hit by the war are still affected by the blackout, including large parts of Khartoum and Darfur, and parts of Kordofan, Sennar, Al Jazirah, White Nile and Blue Nile.
The blackout is potentially life-threatening for many of the poorest communities. For example, communal kitchens in Khartoum and Omdurman have had to temporarily close as they can no longer receive money transfers – leaving many poor families without access to affordable food.
Islamic Relief projects to support orphaned children and cash distributions for poor families in Darfur, Blue Nile and Sennar, and parts of Kordofan are also at risk of closing down if the blackout continues. These cash distributions help individuals and families buy food, medicine and other essentials.
This comes at a time when starvation is rising across Sudan after more than 10 months of brutal war. Around 20% of the population are facing “emergency” levels of hunger, just one step away from famine, with another 35% of people at “crisis” levels of hunger, according to the latest analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). At least 24.8 million people are in need of humanitarian aid.
The Islamic Relief country director for Sudan Elsadig Elnour said his family members in Khartoum were unable to buy food for days in the city due to the blackout. He also received word one of his relatives in El Obeid, North Kordofan was killed by stray bullets but was only able to send condolences five days later.
He says: “The impact of the blackout is getting more serious by the day and it’s putting many lives at risk. The blackout is threatening humanitarian operations across much of Sudan and the longer it continues, the more aid projects will have to halt. After more than 10 months of war, millions of people are hanging by a thread and now their only lifeline is at risk.”
“This has affected Sudan socially and economically and is impacting the programmes of aid agencies like ours. My own relative was killed during the outage by bullets and I have only today been able to send my messages of condolence and support to that area. Elements in the conflict have also used the outage to attack villages in Al Jazirah state and likely beyond with the population unable to call for help. They are taking advantage of the lack of communication.”
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Islamic Relief is calling for all parties to the conflict to refrain from attacking or degrading civilian infrastructure in Sudan and to ensure civilians and humanitarian access are protected amid the blackout.
According to the managing director of Zain, a major telecommunications company in Sudan, the blackout was caused by a party to the conflict ordering the closure of Khartoum’s main data centre, which has caused outages across the whole country. Sudanese internet provider Sudani has restored some of coverage in the east and north of the country, including Port Sudan, and Zain has said it is trying to fix the blackout in other areas. Some people in Sudan have been using Starlink, a satellite-based communication system created by Elon Musk and SpaceX, to stay online.
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