Elon Musk writes: "This post was made from a normal mobile phone straight to a SpaceX satellite, with no special equipment in between!"

ELON MUSK sent a post to X yesterday that says: "This post was made from a normal mobile phone straight to a SpaceX satellite, with no special equipment in between!" The historic post dated 6:33 AM Feb 26, 2024 has 25.4M views as at 21:28 GMT Tue Feb 27, 2024.

This post was made from a normal mobile phone straight to a SpaceX satellite, with no special equipment in between! https://t.co/rjry9vr5zj

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2024

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Note, SpaceX sent a post to X yesterday (33 minutes earlier than Mr Musk's) saying: "This post was sent through a SpaceX Direct to Cell satellite in space." The historic post dated 6:00 AM GMT Feb 26, 2024 has 27.3M views as at 21:29 GMT Tue Feb 27, 2024. 

This post was sent through a SpaceX Direct to Cell satellite in space 🛰️

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 26, 2024

POSTSCRIPT from Sudan Watch Editor

Warmest congrats to all involved. Now people in Sudan need to know how they can get the exciting new service on their existing mobile phones, how much it costs, and how and where, and to whom, to pay. 

Right now, in some areas of Sudan civilians are charged extortionate prices to make calls using a Starlink device set up by rebels at illegal checkpoints.

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Further Reading

IMAGE and caption by RichQuack@RichQuack 6:04 AM · Feb 26, 2024:

Caption: SpaceX Sends its Text Messages 

Via Direct-to-Cell Starlink Satellites - Via Satellite

See original (92.8K Views so far): https://twitter.com/RichQuack/status/1761995521692987792

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Copy of a post at X by El-Mahdi @arelmahdi 8:13 PM · Feb 27, 2024:

“I just spoke to someone on WhatsApp who's in an RSF controlled area and she tells me they can access the internet at some of the RSF checkpoints which have a Starlink connection and get access for 1 hour for a fee of 5000 SDG (approx. 4USD). 

So apparently, Starlink is becoming a source of supplementary income (besides looting and salary) for soldiers at RSF checkpoints. Doubt they'll want to see the telecoms networks back up and running in areas under their control.”

See original: https://twitter.com/arelmahdi/status/1762571749596504390

H/t Cameron Hudson @_hudsonc Feb 8 2024:

“Network blackout cuts communications for millions in war-torn Sudan. Of course, RSF are getting around internet cutoffs by using Starlink, procured in Chad and Libya. Im detecting a pattern…”

See original: https://twitter.com/arelmahdi/status/1762571749596504390

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Copy of a post at X by Sadeia @sadiea8 2:51 PM · Feb 27, 2024:

“The local authorities in El Geneina - West Darfur impose fees on satellite internet devices (Starlink) of 150,000 pounds on everyone who owns a device and uses it for commercial purposes, in addition to service fees of 50,000 pounds annually.

Anyone who violates the provisions of this decision will be subject to a fine of 500,000 pounds, or one month in prison, or both.”

See original: https://twitter.com/sadiea8/status/1762490632654684535

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Sudan Watch - February 10, 2024

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

People in Sudan are suffering after decades of war. Now their internet has been shut for several days. It was hard enough for them to keep going during bombings while managing patchy electricity.

In most parts of Sudan, banks, shops, businesses, churches and infrastructure have been destroyed. The Sudanese depend on the internet to receive money for food, medicine, electricity, calls for news and help. 

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

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Sudan Watch - November 20, 2023

SpaceX is advertising a position for growth manager of its Starlink Internet service in Sub-Saharan Africa

SpaceX is advertising a job vacancy for a manager to boost Starlink growth in Africa. The role will be based in Nairobi, Kenya, from where the growth manager will report to a team at Starlink’s Hawthorne, California headquarters.

Full story: https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/11/spacex-is-advertising-position-for.html

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END

Panic grips Sudan as terrorists move toward south. Civilians flee Sudan register at UNHC in Renk S.Sudan

In Tambul, halfway between Khartoum and Wad Madani, witnesses said RSF members rampaged through one of the state's main markets, shooting into the air at random. And many who tried to flee the onslaught were unable to. Activists, who risk their lives to document the horrors, said the RSF had set up checkpoints across the state, stopping civilians as they tried to flee and ordering them to turn back. Read more.

Report from Daily Sabah

By Agence France-Presse - AFP
Al-Jazira State, Sudan
Dated Monday, 25 December 2023 5:54 PM GMT+3 - here is a copy in full:

Panic grips war-hit Sudan as paramilitaries move toward south

Civilians fleeing conflict in Sudan wait for asylum registration procedures at the U.N. High Commissioner, in Renk, South Sudan, Dec. 18, 2023. 

(AFP Photo)

The war-hit Sudan has plunged into a state of panic as reports emerged that the country's notorious paramilitary forces were moving south in their war against the army.

On a countryside road in battle-ravaged Sudan, the hum of a passing vehicle turns villagers' blood cold, fearing their arrival.

"They've created a state of total panic," said Rabab, who lives in a village north of Wad Madani, the Al-Jazira state capital and the latest site of fierce battles between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Like others AFP spoke to, she requested to be identified by first name only out of fear of retaliation from fighters who have consistently targeted civilians during more than eight months of war.

On Saturday at least eight people were killed by RSF fighters in a village in Al-Jazira state, witnesses told AFP, saying they had been shot after trying to stop their looting.

Just south of Khartoum, more than half a million people had sought shelter in Al-Jazira after the fighting overwhelmed the Sudanese capital.

This month, however, paramilitaries pressed deeper into the state and shattered one of the country's few remaining sanctuaries, forcing more than 300,000 people to flee once again, the United Nations said.

Those who remain – unable or unwilling to leave – have found themselves in what the Red Cross has called "another death trap."

Since April 15, Sudan has been gripped by a war pitting army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

By the end of November, at least 12,190 people had been killed in the fighting, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict and Location Event Data project.

The United Nations says more than 7 million people have been displaced by the war. At least 85,000 had sought refuge in Wad Madani.

In the village of Aykura, 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Wad Madani, one resident told AFP by phone that "the RSF has taken everything – the cars, the trucks, the tractors."

He, too, stressed the need for anonymity to protect him from paramilitary violence.

'At war with us?'

Before the war, Al-Jazira was a key agricultural hub.

However, as the RSF has moved southwards from Khartoum it has taken over swathes of agricultural land and terrorised the farmers that till it.

By Saturday, RSF fighters were seen north of Sennar, about 140 kilometers south of Wad Madani, according to witnesses.

The RSF has become notorious for looting property, with civilians who fled watching in horror as fighters posted videos of themselves on social media taking joyrides in stolen cars and vandalizing homes.

In the market of Hasaheisa, a town 50 kilometers north of Wad Madani, an AFP correspondent saw shop doors flung open with the merchandise looters had not wanted strewn on the ground.

Omar Hussein, 42, stood in the wreckage of his family business.

Every store and vehicle they owned was destroyed. "Is the RSF at war with the army or with us?" he said.

On Saturday, fellow Hasaheisa resident Abdin found "seven men in RSF uniform carrying machine guns" at his door.

They questioned him about the car in his driveway, "and took it at gunpoint."

When Rabab was robbed, she did not receive the courtesy of a knock.

"They fired their guns in front of the house, stormed in and left no room unsearched," she said.

Free rein

Home invasions have been a hallmark of RSF takeovers – as have sexual assaults.

According to Sudan's Combating Violence Against Women Unit, most sexual violence occurs "inside homes, when gunmen – whom survivors describe as wearing RSF uniforms – break in and assault women and girls."

Both the RSF and the army have been accused of a range of systematic violations including indiscriminate shelling of residential neighborhoods, arbitrary detention of civilians and torture.

In Tambul, halfway between Khartoum and Wad Madani, witnesses said RSF members rampaged through one of the state's main markets, shooting into the air at random.

And many who tried to flee the onslaught were unable to.

Activists, who risk their lives to document the horrors, said the RSF had set up checkpoints across the state, stopping civilians as they tried to flee and ordering them to turn back.

Three days into the RSF's assault on Wad Madani, the army said it opened an investigation into "the retreat of forces from their positions" in the city.

Burhan warned every "negligent and complacent person" would be held to account after the RSF – accused of committing atrocities in the Darfur war where it fought on behalf of the army – had free rein.

View original: https://www.dailysabah.com/world/africa/panic-grips-war-hit-sudan-as-paramilitaries-move-toward-south

ENDS

S. Sudan: 1 killed, 4 wounded at Abyei-Twic border

From Radio Tamazuj
Dated Thursday, 14 December 2023 - here is a full copy:

One killed, four wounded at Abyei-Twic border

The authorities of Warrap State's Twic County and Abyei Special Administrative Area (ASAA) on Wednesday traded accusations over fresh fighting along their border in which one person died and four others were injured.

The fighting happened in Malual Aleu village in the Athony area.

Twic County Commissioner Simon Aguek accused armed Ngok Dinka youth from Abyei of attacking the youth in his county.

“Armed youth from Abyei clashed with armed youth from Twic in Malual Aleu village which is claimed by Twic County and Abyei and one person from my side was killed and four people were wounded on Tuesday and the injured are admitted in Mayen Abun Hospital,” he said.

Aguek also said that two Twic youths who were traveling in a vehicle belonging to the UNHCR were kidnapped by the Abyei youth.

“I am now in the meeting with UNHCR officials who want to know the whereabouts of two youths who were taken out of their car by youth suspected to be from Abyei,” he added.

Meanwhile, Abyei Information Minister Bulis Koch accused armed youth from Twic County of erecting an illegal checkpoint in Abyei which angered the local youth.

“On Tuesday there were clashes between our armed youth and those of Twic because they (Twic youth) erected another illegal checkpoint in Athony area near Malual Aleu village and Abyei area youth clashed with them (Twic armed youth) and four youth from Twic County were shot and Abyei youth never experienced any injuries or losses, he said. “What Twic did was bad because they beheaded two youths from Abyei during the past incident in Ayuok village and money was put in their mouths.  It is something inhuman and this was known when Twic armed youth posted it on Social media. I will share these pictures with you today.”

Minister Koch also accused the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) and SSPDF of not protecting the civilians of Abyei.

"That was why the civil society organizations in Abyei protested and called for the removal of the UNISFA commander because they respond only after an incident or when fighting has stopped,” he stated. “The same thing is also done by the SSPDF. They are near where two groups of youth clashed and they did not come out to stop the fighting.”

View original: https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/one-killed-four-wounded-at-abyei-twic-border

END