Turn on the internet, orders court
A SUDANESE court ordered telecoms operator Zain Sudan yesterday to restore internet services, a lawyer said, after they were severed nearly three weeks ago when security forces dispersed protesters camping in central Khartoum.
Sudan’s military rulers ordered the internet blackout as a security measure, but it’s harming the economy and humanitarian operations in the African nation of 40 million.
The protesters are demanding the military hand power to a civilian authority.
Abdel-Adheem Hassan, a lawyer who filed his own case against Zain Sudan over the blackout, said the Khartoum District Court had ordered Zain to “immediately restore internet services to the country”.
Zain Sudan, a subsidiary of Zain Kuwait and the largest operator in Sudan, was not able to comment on the matter yesterday.
Hassan said a Zain representative had told the court in response to the petition that the company had been ordered verbally by “high authorities” to cut the internet. A source at Zain said that the telecoms regulator had ordered the internet outage and demanded that they be added as a party to the case in an appeal.
Sudanese officials could not be reached for comment and it was unclear what impact yesterday’s court order would have.
Authorities also restricted access to popular social media sites during 16 weeks of protests against veteran leader Omar al-Bashir earlier this year. Bashir was finally ousted on April 11.
The current blackout, which began on June 3, has resulted in a “near-total loss of access” for mobile and fixed line connections for most ordinary users, though connectivity had improved from 2% to 10% of normal levels by Thursday, said Alp Toker of NetBlocks, a digital rights NGO. “Data indicate that Sudan’s current internet restrictions remain more severe than those observed during the rule of Omar al-Bashir.
The blackout has hampered the effectiveness of humanitarian operations,” said Rick Brennan, regional emergencies director at the World Health Organisation.
Protesters have been demanding that authorities restore internet services as one of their conditions for returning to talks on forming a transitional administration comprising both civilians and military officers.
General Salah Abdel-Khaleq, a member of Sudan’s Transitional Military Council, told the BBC Arabic service internet services would be restored once talks resumed. SOUTH-EAST Asian leaders yesterday pressed their call for self-restraint in the disputed South China Sea and reiterated their alarm over the US-China trade war, with one leader warning it might spiral out of control.
The long-raging territorial conflicts and the protracted dispute between the two global economic powerhouses are high on the agenda in the final of two days of meetings of leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Facing regional predicaments such as the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar, the leaders took the stage and clasped their hands together in a trademark Asean handshake to project unity.
Founded in 1967, the 10-nation bloc lumps together an absolute monarchy and constitutional monarchies, along with socialist republics and fledgling democracies.
This year’s host, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, called for regional unity and a push for the bloc to conclude a massive free trade pact with China and five other Asia-Pacific nations to cushion any impact from America’s trade conflicts with China.
The US, which has pursued bilateral deals over multination trade accords under President Donald Trump, is not included in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership which Prayuth said would encompass the world’s largest free-trade region.
Officials from Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam will be at the G-20 summit later this month in Japan, where Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet, and express the region’s concerns.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday said: “The US and China must both take the high road and resolve their differences before the situation spirals out of control.”
In their public communiques, the leaders have avoided naming the US and China or specific nations embroiled in controversial issues in a show of their conservative protocols.
The leaders, however, could raise thorny issues in a closed-door and informal session.
The leaders yesterday renewed their call for countries involved in the territorial spats to “exercise self-restraint”.
Asean has been in talks with China to negotiate a non-aggression pact called the “code of conduct” to prevent major armed clashes in the offshore region, which has long been regarded as a potential Asian flashpoint.