Sudan: Committee to Protect Journalists condemn the murder of Sudanese journalist Mr Khalid Balal

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: At an online networking platform a few days ago, Sudanese journalist Mr Hassan Ahmed Berkia posted this photo and tragic news regarding Sudanese journalist Khalid Balal:

"According to the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate, journalist Khalid Balal was killed by an armed group inside his home in El Fasher, North Darfur State. The identity of the killers or the group they belong to has not been confirmed."

Photo: Sudanese journalist Mr Khalid Balal

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In reply to Hassan’s post I wrote and posted this comment:

"Condolences to Khalid's family and friends. Over the past 20 years hundreds of brave peacekeepers and journalists in Sudan and South Sudan have been murdered. 

There’s little hard news coming out of Sudan because journalists and media outlets inside the country have been silenced. There is no freedom of speech. Anyone is free to kill.

In Memory of Khalid Balal and all journalists who have been killed in Sudan and South Sudan I wish we could stay on top of this story to find out what happened on that fateful day in El Fasher, North Darfur and why. People are murdering because they can, and they know they'll get away with it.

There is so much more to this story because Khalid leaves behind a shocked and grieving family and friends traumatised at such loss. 

If anyone finds any shred of news on this story and what happened please share here. Maybe Khalid's family have written an obituary. 

Rest In Peace Khalid Balal + + +"

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Today, I saw the following report regarding Khalid Balal.

From Sudan Tribune

Dated Wednesday, 6 March 2024 - here is a copy in full:

CPJ condemns killing of Sudanese journalist Khalid Balal

March 6, 2024 (NEW YORK) – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged Sudanese authorities to investigate and hold accountable those responsible for killing journalist Khalid Balal in Darfur region.

The body appealed to all parties to the conflict to respect members of the press.

“We are shocked by the brutal killing of journalist Khalid Balal in his own home by armed combatants,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour from Washington, D.C.

He added, “We urge the Sudanese authorities to promptly investigate Balal’s killing and ensure justice for this crime. All parties to the war in Sudan must respect journalists’ safety and cease killing members of the press who are civilians.”

On March 1, armed soldiers in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, shot and killed Balal, media director at the Sudanese government’s Supreme Council for Media and Culture, inside his home, according to news reports and two local journalists, who spoke with CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

According to sources, Balal was also a member of the local trade union, the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate.

CPJ was unable to determine which armed group was responsible for Balal’s killing.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April when clashes erupted in the capital, Khartoum, between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The two local journalists attributed Balal’s death to his long career in journalism.

The journalists did not provide further details to CPJ, which will continue to investigate the circumstances of Balal’s death.

Meanwhile CPJ’s emails to the SAF and the RSF requesting comment on Balal’s death did not receive any replies.

CPJ is a New York-based non-governmental body that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists. Since the late 1980s, the organization has been publishing an annual census of journalist killed or imprisoned for their work. (ST)

View original: https://sudantribune.com/article282977/

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POSTSCRIPT from Sudan Watch Editor:

At the same online networking platform a day ago, Hassan posted this photo and disturbing news from Sudanese Journalists Syndicate regarding Sudanese journalist Luay Abdelrahman:

"Journalist Luay Abdelrahman has recently been subjected to a fierce campaign on social media platforms. It has prominently appeared on pages affiliated with the Rapid Support Forces, and the campaign has taken various forms, including defamation, categorization, and character assassination. The campaign against journalist Luay intensified after he exposed the horrific human rights violations committed by the Rapid Support Forces against unarmed civilians in Al-Gazira state.

(Sudanese Journalists Syndicate)"

Photo: Sudanese journalist Mr Luay Abdelrahman 

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In reply to Hassan’s post I wrote and posted this comment:

"This is awful. I have just sent this message to Committee to Protect Journalists [...]: Dear CPJ, I remember you from many years ago, you once helped me when I was being threatened. Is there any way to intervene online in order to protect this journalist? Maybe threaten them with legal action or whatever tools you have had your disposal. Here is the post in my notifications page [...]. 

Kind regards, Ingrid J. Jones"

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Sudan: The state has collapsed. WFP calls for urgent, safe access to feed millions in Sudan as fighting rages

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: Today (Sat 2 Mar) I saw the below copied report by WFP 2 Feb 2024 shared at a website. After verifying some information with a few Sudan watchers, I posted the following comment:

"This article is a month old and the situation is worse with telecoms internet network outages continuing in Khartoum, Gezira, White Nile, South Kordofan and all 5 Darfur states. 

People have a problem obtaining money due to suspension of banking applications and many are unable to travel long distances to get money. 

The network outages are also compounded by the longstanding ability of international agencies to gain access to neither RSF nor SAF controlled areas. The situation is desperate and further aggravates the war’s direct toll on lives and livelihoods. 

There is a massive scale of suffering and inability of communal kitchens, emergency resistance committees or ordinary Sudanese people to provide food, medicines and essential services to people trapped in those locations. 

Khartoum is in blackout for 27th day. Who knows what's going on in the blackouts? The silence from Khartoum is deafening.  

Although the UN and all mediators are fully aware, those concerned can see no action to at least the network outages and other life-saving services. 

Who helps and protects the people in those locations? What about the elderly, infirm, sick needing healthcare, what will become of them? Has the state collapsed?"

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From World Food Programme (WFP)
Dated 02 February 2024 - here is a copy in full:

WFP calls for urgent, safe access to feed millions in Sudan as fighting rages across the country

PORT SUDAN – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) urgently calls on Sudan’s warring parties to provide immediate guarantees for the safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian food assistance to conflict-hit parts of Sudan, especially across conflict lines where hungry displaced civilians are trapped and cut-off from life-saving humanitarian assistance.

The situation in Sudan is dire. Despite WFP's efforts to provide food assistance to millions of people across the country since the war broke out, almost 18 million individuals across the country are currently facing acute hunger (IPC3+).

WFP has repeatedly warned of a looming hunger catastrophe in Sudan and people must be able to access aid immediately to prevent a crisis from becoming a catastrophe. Shockingly, the number of hungry has more than doubled from a year ago, and an estimated five million people are experiencing emergency levels of hunger (IPC phase 4) due to conflict in areas such as Khartoum, Darfur, and Kordofan.

WFP is the logistics backbone of the humanitarian response in Sudan and has ramped up lifesaving assistance in response to the deepening crisis, assisting over 6.5 million people since the war broke out. To reach families in Darfur, WFP established a cross-border route from Chad, through which over 1 million people have received food assistance. Other agencies have also used the route to deliver other much needed support. 

However, WFP is currently only able to regularly deliver food assistance to 1 in 10 people facing emergency levels of hunger (IPC phase 4) in Sudan. These people are trapped in conflict hotspots, including Khartoum, Darfur, Kordofan, and now Gezira, and for assistance to reach them humanitarian convoys must be allowed to cross the frontlines. Yet it is becoming nearly impossible for aid agencies to cross due to security threats, enforced roadblocks, and demands for fees and taxation.

“The situation in Sudan today is nothing short of catastrophic. Millions of people are impacted by the conflict. WFP has food in Sudan, but lack of humanitarian access and other unnecessary hurdles are slowing operations and preventing us from getting vital aid to the people who most urgently need our support,” said Eddie Rowe, WFP Sudan Representative and Country Director in Sudan. 

A vital humanitarian hub in Gezira state – which previously supported over 800,000 people a month - was engulfed by fighting in December and a key WFP warehouse looted. WFP is trying to obtain security guarantees to resume operations in the area to reach vulnerable families who are now trapped and in urgent need of food assistance.  

Over half a million people fled Gezira in December. For many it was the second or third time they have been displaced in this conflict, which has sparked the world's largest displacement crisis. But just 40,000 of the newly displaced have so far received WFP assistance because 70 trucks - carrying enough food to feed half a million people for one month – were stuck in Port Sudan for over two weeks in January waiting for clearances, which were only secured last week. Now, distributions are ongoing in Kassala, Gedaref and Blue Nile states.

Another 31 WFP trucks, which should have been making regular aid deliveries to the Kordofans, Kosti and Wad Madani, have been parked empty and have been unable to leave El Obeid for over three months. 

“Every single one our trucks need to be on the road each and every day delivering food to the Sudanese people, who are traumatised and overwhelmed after over nine months of horrifying conflict. Yet life-saving assistance is not reaching those who need it the most, and we are already receiving reports of people dying of starvation,” said Rowe. 

“Both parties to this gruesome conflict must look beyond the battlefield and allow aid organisations operate. For that, we need the uninhibited freedom of movement, including across conflict lines, to help people who so desperately need it right now, regardless of where they are,” he warned 

 

#                    #                   #

 

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters, and the impact of climate change.

 

Follow us on Twitter @WFP_Media, @WFP_Sudan

CONTACT
For more information please contact 
(email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Leni Kinzli, WFP/ Sudan, Mob. +254 769602340
Brenda Kariuki, WFP/ Nairobi. Tel, +254 707722104
James Belgrave, WFP/ Rome, Mob. +39 3665294297
Nina Valente, WFP/ London, Mob. +44 (0)796 8008 474
Martin Rentsch, WFP/ Berlin, Mob +49 160 99 26 17 30
Shaza Moghraby, WFP/ New York, Mob. + 1 929 289 9867
Steve Taravella, WFP/ Washington, Mob.  +1 202 770 5993

RELATED LINKS
Note to editors: Photos available via this link

Source: https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-calls-urgent-safe-access-feed-millions-sudan-fighting-rages-across-country

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Related

Sudan Watch - March 01, 2024

UN experts: Sudan’s paramilitary forces carried out ethnic killings and rapes that may be war crimes - Darfur is experiencing “its worst violence since 2005”

The report to the U.N. Security Council, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, paints a horrifying picture of the brutality of the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces against Africans in Darfur. It also details how the RSF succeeded in gaining control of four out of Darfur’s five states, including through complex financial networks that involve dozens of companies.

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/03/un-experts-sudans-paramilitary-forces.html

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Sudan Watch - March 02, 2024

Sudan: In Zamzam camp, North Darfur, the death rate is catastrophic. At least 1 child dies every 2 hours

Malnutrition and disease are rife at the ‘overwhelmed’ Zamzam camp, a host to 300,000 internally displaced people, one of hundreds in Sudan, where war has displaced nearly 8 million people. The scale is simply terrifying. Zamzam is just one camp. There are hundreds of others in Sudan. 

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/03/sudan-in-zamzam-camp-north-darfur-death.html

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END

Sudan: SIM card frenzy in Port Sudan amid blackouts. Map of Internet availability and connectivity in Sudan

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: I am contributing to this map by adding notes such as those below. I exchanged emails with Sudanese people this week  in Khartoum and South Kordofan. Both are in the yellow part of the map. The map shows internet availability and network connection in Sudan as at 20 Feb 2024. Green - Network available . Yellow - Network blackout.

Credit: map and caption Anas Yassin

Map showing Internet availability and network connection in Sudan 20/Feb/2024 . Green - Network available . Yellow - Network blackout 

#keepeyesonsudan

Today, I exchanged emails with a Sudanese person in Gedaref State, Sudan who says, "Yes we were out of network service for many days, but it's back now. The internet is somehow difficult to access in Gedaref, there is only one telecommnications company (Sudatel) that works, besides the heavy load of data, but the situation is stable. It doesn't work in many Gedaref State localities. However, it's good in downtown and other localities which are 50 kilometres from Gedaref town. Also, Sennar and Aj Jazira State and Blue Nile are blackout. But in some areas like Central Darfur they're using Starlink satellite network. I am in Gedaref and had a visitor today from Sennar who said there is no activation of telecommunications in Sennar." 

Also, I asked "are you using a Sudatel SIM card? I've just read this report (below) and wondered if it is possible to get those SIM cards (like the ones in report) to the yellow area of the map showing internet blackout, would they work? The answer was, "Yes, I am using a Sudatel SIM card".

I asked "is electricity supply stable in Gedaref, Aj Jazirah State, Sennar and Blue Nile?" The answer says, "It's not stable in Gedaref State about 80%, I don't know about Aj Jazira State and Blue Nile, but it's not stable in Sennar."

A few days ago, someone in London commented to me they'd spoken to people in Omdurman (15 min drive from Khartoum) via WhatsApp, the people had to visit souk Libya's market for WiFi. The voice call was clear. The person in London received more calls over past week from same person, and used a phone to transfer funds to the caller in Sudan by using Bankak. 

So, going by the above: 

• internet connectivity in Khartoum does work but is patchy;
• a place in Omburdman is OK if one can visit a WiFi spot;
• a place in South Kordofan was found to be OK;
• Sennar and Blue Nile are still in blackout; 
• network doesn't work in many Gedaref State localities;
• in Aj Jazirah State there is no network, it's still in blackout;
• 50 miles from Gedaref town there are downtown areas and localities where connectivity is good;
• in some parts of Central Darfur, Starlink is being used;
• electricity is not stable 80% of time in Gederaf State; don't know about Aj Jazirah State;
• electricity is not stable in Sennar.

My next step is to search for news on Sennar, Blue Nile, Gedaref State localities, Central Darfur to learn how people in those areas are managing in blackout and find out if anyone has received/sent a voice call/text/voicemail.

Meanwhile, if anyone affected by telecoms problems in Sudan, and the cost of running a phone, is reading this and can add further details - no matter how small - please email or post at X #keepeyesonsudan.

Going by what I have gathered so far, the telecoms situation in Sudan is extremely alarming and worrying for those living in the yellow part of the map. How are they getting news, help, food, water, meds, electricity? It's like they have been thrown back into the Stone Age. It is totally unacceptable.

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My comment posted at the map

Thanks for posting this visual. What is the source of the data? Does it include all telecoms/TV/landline telephony/mobile comms telcos/internet connectivity? A few days ago I received messages via LinkedIn from reliable sources inside Khartoum itself and in South Kordofan. If the map is accurate, maybe there's a tiny minority in the orange sections who have access to Starlink or something that is not available to the majority. If the orange section shows areas suffering a near total blackout, I am shocked and surprised there has not been a loud outcry. Are you currently located in White Nile? If so, are you and the folks you know in White Nile in total blackout? White Nile is in orange section. 

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Report from Radio Tamazuj - Port Sudan
Dated Tuesday 20 February 2024 - here is a copy in full:

Sudani SIM card frenzy in Port Sudan amid service cuts

Hundreds of Sudanese citizens flocked to the Sudani Telecommunications Company headquarters in Port Sudan to get their hands on the company’s special communication SIM cards. This surge in demand follows weeks of complete communication service interruption in Sudan, a result of the ongoing war in the country.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj Monday, Haired Abdel Salam, a Sudanese citizen, said: “I’ve been attempting to acquire a Sudani SIM for four days now. It’s not about getting a new SIM; rather, I’m trying to restore my old one.” He expressed difficulty in accessing the service due to the large crowds.

Mohammed Mustafa also recounted his visit to Sudani Communications Services, stating, “I needed to obtain a SIM card for the first time because of the communication outage. However, I was taken aback by the overwhelming number of people waiting for the service.” He noted the high cost of the service, even when attempting to acquire it from outside the company premises.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Sudanese Telecommunications Company (Sudani), Engineer Majdi Mohammed Abdullah, stated that over the past five months, despite the loss of the billing system, the company has persevered in its efforts to provide services without charge. Emphasizing the importance of sustaining operations despite the incurred losses, Abdullah highlighted the commitment to continue working despite the challenges faced by the company.

In recent months, Sudan has experienced a complete halt in telecommunications services, impacting both communication and internet services. This situation has raised concerns, particularly with the interruption of essential banking services that citizens rely on, given the wartime conditions. Additionally, various other services dependent on the internet in Sudan have been affected.

View original: https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/sudani-sim-card-frenzy-at-port-sudan-amidst-service-cuts

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UPDATE by Sudan Watch Editor on 25 Feb 2024, added the following:

Sudan Watch - February 12, 2024

NetBlocks: Major internet disruption in Chad, severed fibre optic cable supplying Chad from Cameroon

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/02/netblocks-major-internet-disruption-in.html

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Sudan Watch - February 10, 2024

URGENT MESSAGE to Sir Tim Berners-Lee: The internet belongs to everyone including the Sudanese

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/02/urgent-message-to-sir-tim-berners-lee.html

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Sudan Watch - February 08, 2024

Sudan hit by internet blackout as conflict continues

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/02/sudan-hit-by-internet-blackout-as.html

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Sudan Watch - April 23, 2023

Sudan almost completely disconnected from Internet

Just 2% of all Internet users in Sudan have web connectivity at present

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/04/sudan-almost-completely-disconnected.html

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Sudan Watch - June 24, 2019

Sudan internet shutdown has a projected cost of more than $1 billion, and will continue for three months

NetBlocks, an organization that tracks Internet freedom around the world, described the blackout as a “near-total restriction on the flow of information in and out of Sudan for a significant portion of the population.”

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2019/06/sudan-internet-shutdown-has-projected.html

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END