Security forces set up roadblocks in the capital Khartoum as tens of thousands of protesters opposed to military rule marched through the city.

The military junta has severely restricted communications, including mobile internet and phone lines, and blocked key bridges across the Nile River connecting Khartoum to its suburbs.

“Mobile Internet disrupted in Sudan from ~10 am local time ahead of anti-coup protests in Khartoum; network data show service cut as demonstrators gather for the first pro-democracy march of 2022; incident ongoing,” tweeted NetBlocks, a watchdog organization that monitors cybersecurity and the governance of the Internet.

After the military junta removed Omar al-Bashir from his position as President of Sudan in April 2019, ten of thousands of people took to the streets en masse in demonstrations that were violently suppressed by security forces.

A total of 54 people has been shot to death in the protests against military rule since October when the security forces’ crackdown began, according to a committee of pro-democracy doctors. (ILKHA)