Internet Blackout in Sudan as Civil Disobedience to Military Rule Continues

Landline internet was down across Sudan on Monday, the second day of a nationwide civil disobedience campaign against the ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC). The strike began nearly a week after a raid on demonstrators at their sit-in site outside the army headquarters in the capital Khartoum, which left over 60 dead, according to government officials – although opposition leaders say the death toll is twice that number. Organizers of the protest movement have said the countrywide disobedience campaign will run until the TMC hands power to a civilian government, a demand the demonstrators have been advocating for since the overthrow of president Omar al-Bashir in April. In related news, the TMC reportedly deported three leaders from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), one of the main protest groups in the opposition alliance, to neighboring South Sudan. Two of the men, SPLM-N Secretary-General Ismail Jallab and spokesman Mubarak Ardol, were arrested last weekend after meeting in Khartoum with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who was attempting to mediate between the two sides.