Sudan Goes Offline amid Khartoum Riots

“Amid riots in Khartoum” the Sudanese Government pulled the plug on the Internet in the country, as confirmed by the Internet monitoring and research company Renesys on Twitter.

Sudan`s going completely offline appears to point towards the local government`s decision to lift the fuel subsidies which would automatically lead to a significant rise in the fuel price.

“What I can tell you with certainty is that they are offline, because the routes are gone it’s not possible to communicate over the Internet with anyone in Sudan right now,” Renesys researcher Doug Madory told Mashable. “[That] would suggest that the government may be involved. There are different Internet providers that are affected, so it can’t be a technical glitch on just one of them,” he added.

Internet traffic monitoring company BGPMon also confirmed the internet blackout in Sudan while the local news portal Al Arabiya writes that schools in the country`s capital were closed until September 30^th.

When the government announced there would be no more subsidiaries for petroleum, locals took to the streets to protest against the new economic reform. Riots spread all over the country, including Omdurman, Khartoum, Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, and Wad Madani. Soon afterwards the Internet connection was cut off.