All online connections to Sudan were abruptly cut off after riots erupted over the ending of fuel subsidies. The government seems to make the move in order to prevent protesters from using social media to organize riots. Although the real reasons are unclear, the Internet monitoring firms point out that it was either a coincidental catastrophic failure of all three independent ISPs and their connections out of Sudan (as well as a terrestrial link into Egypt) or some centrally directed, government action.

In most cases of a failure of this kind which is not governmentally directed (for example, a power failure or a cut cable), ISPs switch to their satellite backups. However, this time it didn’t happen. It was a total shutdown, as happened earlier in Egypt.

Cutting off Internet is normally used by some governments in Middle Eastern countries in order to regain control amid heated protests. As you now, the now-defunct Mubarak regime in Egypt and the Assad regime in Syria have severed online links in attempt to restrict protests. Indeed, cutting international links makes it difficult to upload videos of protests to YouTube, among other things.

The industry observers confirmed that Sudan’s Internet connectivity abruptly dropped to zero. According to media reports, it broke out after the local government removed fuel subsidies, with a number of petrol stations and a university building set on fire. In the meantime, security forces fired teargas to disperse protesters who have demonstrated and set fire to a police station in Khartoum.

Since the protests have gone on for a few days after the country’s Council of Ministers decided to stop the subsidies, the price of fuel immediately doubled. The industry experts point out that the cut in subsidies followed the split of South Sudan to form an independent state two years ago. The latter took more of the main oil-producing territory which had previously been part of Sudan. In addition, the International Monetary Fund has previously told Sudan to cut the subsidies, as they consumed over 3/4 of the government’s total tax revenues. As a result, the people have no access to Internet and are in isolation from the world.

"coincidental catastrophic failure of all three independent ISPs"

Jesus. Talk about extreme governmental control.