In Sudan, telecommunications operators announce an interruption of their services
February 6th 2024
The Sudanese telecoms company Zain Sudan announced on Monday February 5 an interruption of its mobile telephone and Internet services. Its main competitor MTN Sudan had already made a similar announcement on Friday February 2. Both operators cite circumstances beyond their control.
“ The company staff and support company team worked in extremely difficult, harsh and dangerous conditions ,” said Zain Sudan. “ We hope that peace and security will return to our beloved country and that service will be restored as soon as possible ,” the company continued.
The real reasons for the service interruption are unknown. They come as the conflict between the army in power and paramilitary forces since April 2023 intensifies, causing a major humanitarian crisis. In May 2023, MTN had already announced a general interruption of its network and services caused by a fuel shortage and a power cut. A few weeks earlier, the company was ordered by the regulator to block and then restore access to Internet services.
The unavailability of the national telecoms network could complicate an already difficult situation for Sudanese who need mobile services to keep informed of developments in the conflict, stay in touch with their loved ones, call for help, seek refuge abroad. foreign… This could also affect the activities of humanitarian organizations, among others.
As a reminder, Sudan had 32.59 million subscribers to mobile telephone services for a penetration rate of 68.6% at the start of 2023, according to the latest statistics from the DataReportal data platform. The number of Internet users in the country stood at 13.49 million, or 28.4 percent of the population.
Source: Agency EcoFin
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