With a widespread telecoms blackout already in place, emergency help and humanitarian aid at risk if satellite service withdrawn, say NGOs Nearly 100

Starlink internet shutdown in Sudan will punish millions, Elon Musk warned

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2024-05-16 05:30:03

With a widespread telecoms blackout already in place, emergency help and humanitarian aid at risk if satellite service withdrawn, say NGOs

Nearly 100 humanitarian groups in Sudan have warned Elon Musk he risks “collectively punishing” millions of Sudanese by shutting down his vital Starlink satellite internet service in the war-ravaged country.

Sudan has been grappling with a widespread telecommunications blackout for several months, with many aid groups using Starlink to operate during the humanitarian crisis which the UN has warned is the largest in decades.

However Starlink, the satellite arm of Musk’s SpaceX, recently said that it will remove its services in Sudan by restricting roaming in jurisdictions where it was not licensed.

The imminent termination of the system risks destabilising the coordination of emergency assistance and humanitarian services to millions of civilians caught up in the year-long civil conflict.

Fighting broke out in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, on 15 April 2023 as an escalating power struggle between the two main factions of the military regime finally turned deadly.