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Iran Steps up Internet Crackdown One Year After Mahsa Amini Death 

A woman speaks on a cell phone while a man next to her browses a phone along a street in Tehran on September 4, 2023. (AFP)
A woman speaks on a cell phone while a man next to her browses a phone along a street in Tehran on September 4, 2023. (AFP)
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Iran Steps up Internet Crackdown One Year After Mahsa Amini Death 

A woman speaks on a cell phone while a man next to her browses a phone along a street in Tehran on September 4, 2023. (AFP)
A woman speaks on a cell phone while a man next to her browses a phone along a street in Tehran on September 4, 2023. (AFP)

One year after young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini died in police custody while under arrest for improper hijab, Iran has stepped up internet restrictions to stop a resurgence of the widespread mass protests that swept the country last year.

Ahead of the Sept. 16 anniversary of Amini's death, days before her 22nd birthday, government opponents say Iran is conducting a wide-ranging crackdown to stifle possible dissent.

At least 22,000 were arrested in the protests and seven people executed. The demonstrations - the biggest and most widespread since the 1979 revolution - were sparked after images spread on social media of Amini lying unconscious in a hospital bed following her arrest.

Now Iran is doing everything it can to prevent the same thing happening again, rights groups and activists say.

As well as blocking thousands of websites, Iran regularly shuts down the internet altogether, or imposes "digital curfews" - stopping access in the evening when protests are more likely. It also blocks messaging apps and has criminalized virtual private networks (VPNs) used to get around the curbs.

Iran ranked third globally in the number of times it shut down the internet last year, according to digital rights group Access Now.

This included shutting down mobile networks, both nationally and in targeted areas, while also blocking access to Instagram and WhatsApp, the only two major platforms not already subject to outright bans, Access Now said.

"Internet shutdowns violate human rights," said Access Now policy and advocacy manager Marwa Fatafta. "They are a disproportionate and a draconian attack on human rights, implemented by governments in order to keep people in the dark, stop information flows, hide atrocities and human rights abuses, and consequently shield authorities from accountability."

Minorities targeted

Internet access has never been as bad in Iran, said Amir Rashidi, director of digital rights and security at Miaan, a Texas-based group that advocates for human rights in Iran.

That is true especially, he said, in regions where most belong to one of Iran's ethnic and religious minorities, which saw some of the most virulent protests and violent crackdowns.

These include Kurdistan in the west, where Amini lived and was buried, Khuzestan in the southwest, home to many Iranian Arabs, and the province of Sistan and Baluchistan in the southeast, where many belong to the Baluch ethnic minority.

Rights groups say police fired from rooftops near the main mosque in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan, and killed up to 96 people as they protested after Friday prayers on Sept. 30 last year. But weekly protests have continued.

"Authorities have been shutting down the internet every week during Friday prayers in Sistan and Baluchistan and its capital Zahedan at a specific time for a year," Rashidi told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Internet shutdowns have economic costs

Already struggling with international sanctions, high inflation and unemployment, internet shutdowns cost Iran an additional $773 million last year, digital privacy research group TOP10VPN estimated.

The impact is felt by small businesses across the country.

"We haven't had one day without the internet causing some sort of problem. It's impossible to have a normal life in these conditions," said Saeed Souzangar, who said he was struggling to keep his Tehran technology company afloat.

"I had to sell my house and my car just to keep the office lights on," he said.

VPNs are vital for Iranians to connect to social media and communications apps. A member of parliament said last month that around 80% of Iranians used VPNs to bypass censorship.

A 30-year-old web designer in Tehran said not having access to VPNs would have serious financial consequences. Without them, she is unable to work or study, she said.

"It would mean more isolation, more living in darkness," said the woman, who declined to be named.

'Militarizing the internet'

Despite the cost, Iranian authorities have called for yet tougher measures. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on all matters in Iran, in June called for the judiciary to crack down harder on online dissent.

Meanwhile, Communications Minister Issa Zarepour last month said the country had "twice" the internet access it needed. The ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Iran's hardline government introduced a bill to parliament in 2021 that would effectively hand over control of the internet to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which reports directly to the supreme leader, and criminalize the use of VPNs.

Facing opposition from some within parliament and a public backlash, the User Protection Bill has languished in the assembly, but opposition groups say hardliners have bypassed parliament and brought in most elements of the bill anyway.

An as-yet unpublished report by Miaan said the IRGC was seeking to gain absolute control over the internet in Iran.

"Infractions will be dealt with by the military and the internet will become untouchable," Rashidi said.

Internet freedom community

Despite the risks, some in Iran have tried to fight back. Rashidi said the internet crackdown had given rise to a digital rights community including tech specialists, journalists, lawyers and civil society members seeking to limit the changes.

"It's a real thing and they are doing real work," he said.

The internet freedom community is viewed as a threat by Iranian authorities as it endangered state control of what information is consumed by the public, said Simin Kargar, a fellow at Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab.

"We have had tech activists go to jail for teaching people about circumvention tools and privacy preservation online," Kargar said from Washington.

Security forces arrested prominent digital rights advocate Amir Mirmirani, better known by his online name Jadi, and several others in October for protesting internet shutdowns. Jadi said in February he had been released from prison.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation spoke to several activists inside Iran who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisals.

They said authorities had been shutting down the internet and employing filters and surveillance, as well as slowing down internet speeds to suppress opposition narratives on social media and messaging applications.

But Iranian internet freedom activists have nevertheless gathered signatures for online petitions inside Iran to stop the Internet User Protection bill officially passing through parliament.

"I'm not optimistic that the government will loosen its internet restrictions, but if we don't fight, if we don't try, things will get even worse," said one activist.

"Even though the bill is being implemented for all intents and purposes, at least the one million signatures the petition gathered show the world that Iranians are vehemently against it," Rashidi said.

Another activist in Iran campaigning against restrictions said policies restricting internet access were to be expected given the country’s human rights record, but said it was disappointing the outside world did not seem to care.

"I wish someone out there would hear our voice and do something," said the source.

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As Famine Ravages Sudan, the UN Can’t Get Food to Starving Millions

Raous Fleg sits outside a hut in a displaced persons camp she fled to in Sudan’s South Kordofan state. There’s no food in the camp, so Fleg and the other residents have resorted to eating boiled leaves and seeds. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
Raous Fleg sits outside a hut in a displaced persons camp she fled to in Sudan’s South Kordofan state. There’s no food in the camp, so Fleg and the other residents have resorted to eating boiled leaves and seeds. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
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As Famine Ravages Sudan, the UN Can’t Get Food to Starving Millions

Raous Fleg sits outside a hut in a displaced persons camp she fled to in Sudan’s South Kordofan state. There’s no food in the camp, so Fleg and the other residents have resorted to eating boiled leaves and seeds. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
Raous Fleg sits outside a hut in a displaced persons camp she fled to in Sudan’s South Kordofan state. There’s no food in the camp, so Fleg and the other residents have resorted to eating boiled leaves and seeds. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

More than half the people in this nation of 50 million are suffering from severe hunger. Hundreds are estimated to be dying from starvation and hunger-related disease each day.

But life-saving international aid – cooking oil, salt, grain, lentils and more – is unable to reach millions of people who desperately need it. Among them is Raous Fleg, a 39-year-old mother of nine. She lives in a sprawling displaced persons camp in Boram county, in the state of South Kordofan, sheltering from fighting sparked by the civil war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces.

Since Fleg arrived nine months ago, United Nations food aid has gotten through only once – back in May. Her family’s share ran out in 10 days, she said. The camp, home to an estimated 50,000 people, is in an area run by local rebels who hold about half the state.

So, every day after dawn, Fleg and other emaciated women from the camp make a two-hour trek to a forest to pick leaves off bushes. On a recent outing, several ate the leaves raw, to dull their hunger. Back at the camp, the women cooked the leaves, boiling them in a pot of water sprinkled with tamarind seeds to blunt the bitter taste.

For Fleg and the thousands of others in the camp, the barely edible mush is a daily staple. It isn’t enough. Some have starved to death, camp medics say. Fleg’s mother is one of them.

“I came here and found nothing to eat,” said Fleg. “There are days when I don’t know if I’m alive or dead.”

The world has an elaborate global system to monitor and tackle hunger in vulnerable lands. It consists of United Nations agencies, non-governmental aid groups and Western donor countries led by the United States. They provide technical expertise to identify hunger zones and billions of dollars in funding each year to feed people.

Sudan is a stark example of what happens when the final, critical stage in that intricate system – the delivery of food to the starving – breaks down. And it exposes a shaky premise on which the system rests: that governments in famine-stricken countries will welcome the help.

Sometimes, in Sudan and elsewhere, governments and warring parties block crucial aid providers – including the UN’s main food-relief arm, the World Food Program (WFP) – from getting food to the starving. And these organizations are sometimes incapable or fearful of pushing back.

In August, the world’s leading hunger monitor reported that the war in Sudan and restrictions on aid delivery have caused famine in at least one location, in the state of North Darfur, and that other areas of the country were potentially experiencing famine. Earlier, the hunger watchdog, known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), announced that nine million people – almost a fifth of Sudan’s population – are in a food emergency or worse, meaning immediate action is needed to save lives.

It was just the fourth time the IPC has issued a famine finding since it was set up 20 years ago. But despite this year’s dire warnings, the vast majority of Sudanese who desperately need food aid aren’t getting it. A major stumbling block: the main provider of aid, the United Nations relief agencies, won’t dispense aid in places without the approval of Sudan’s army-backed government, which the world body recognizes as sovereign.

Parts of Sudan have become a “humanitarian desert,” said Christos Christou, the president of Doctors Without Borders, which is active on the ground in Darfur. The UN is in “hibernation mode,” he said.

A RISING DEATH TOLL

People are dying in the meantime: A Reuters analysis of satellite imagery found that graveyards in Darfur are expanding fast as starvation and attendant diseases take hold. More than 100 people are perishing every day from starvation, the UK’s Africa minister, Ray Collins, told parliament this month.

Aid is being distributed far more widely in areas controlled by the army. But relief workers say the military doesn’t want food falling into the hands of enemy forces in areas it doesn’t control and is using starvation tactics against civilians to destabilize these areas. The army-backed government, now based in Port Sudan, has held up aid delivery by denying or delaying travel permits and clearances, making it tough to access areas controlled by an opposing faction.

In internal meeting minutes reviewed by Reuters, UN and NGO logistics coordinators have reported for four months in a row, from May to August, that Sudanese authorities are refusing to issue travel permits for aid convoys to places in South Kordofan and Darfur.

The UN’s reticence to confront Sudan’s government over the blocking of aid has effectively made it a hostage of the government, a dozen aid workers told Reuters.

“The UN has been very shy and not brave in calling out the deliberate obstruction of access happening in this country,” said Mathilde Vu, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s advocacy adviser for Sudan.

Four UN officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they fear that if they defy the military, aid workers and agencies could be expelled from Sudan. They point to 2009, when the now-deposed autocrat, Omar al-Bashir, kicked out 13 non-government aid groups after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on war-crimes charges.

A spokesperson for the UN’s emergency-response arm, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said aid organizations “face serious challenges” in reaching people who need help in Sudan. These include the volatile security situation, roadblocks, looting and “various restrictions on the movement of humanitarian supplies and personnel imposed by the parties to the conflict,” said Eri Kaneko, the OCHA spokesperson.

The World Food Program said it has assisted 4.9 million people so far this year across Sudan. That amounts to just one in five of the 25 million people who are enduring severe hunger. The organization didn’t say how many times these people received aid, or how much each person got.

The army’s main foe, the RSF, is also using food as a weapon, Reuters reporting has shown. The two sides, formerly allies, went to war 17 months ago for control of the country. The RSF has looted aid hubs and blocked relief agencies from accessing areas at risk of famine, including displaced persons camps in Darfur and areas of South Kordofan. The group has also conducted an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Masalit people in Darfur, driving hundreds of thousands from their homes and creating the conditions for famine.

BREAKING THE IMPASSE

Some at the UN are calling on Washington and its allies to do more to break the impasse. Among them is Justin Brady, the Sudan head of OCHA. He says the main donor countries – primarily the United States, the United Kingdom and European Union nations – need to engage directly with the Sudanese government on the ground in Port Sudan. After the army seized power in 2021, the US cut off economic aid to Sudan. Western funding for food aid to the hungry is channeled mainly through the UN.

“It’s the donor governments that have the leverage,” Brady said. “We are left on our own” in dealing with the Sudanese authorities.

The Sudanese military and the RSF are to blame for the country’s food crisis, according to Tom Perriello, the US special envoy to Sudan. “This famine was not created by a natural disaster or drought,” he told Reuters. “It was created by men – the same men who can choose to end this war and ensure unhindered access to every corner of Sudan.”

Sudan’s army-backed government and the RSF didn’t respond to questions for this story. The two warring parties have blamed each other for hold-ups in the delivery of aid. Army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo both said this week they were committed to facilitating the flow of aid.

Another impediment may come from inside the World Food Program itself. The WFP has been rocked by alleged corruption within its Sudan operation, which some humanitarian officials and diplomats worry may have affected aid flows. Reuters revealed in late August that the WFP is investigating two of its top officials in Sudan over allegations of fraud and concealing information from donors about the army’s role in blocking aid.

The disarray in Sudan comes as the global famine-fighting system faces one of its greatest tests in years. The IPC estimates that 168 million people in 42 nations are enduring a food crisis or worse, meaning they live in areas where acute malnutrition ranges from 10% to more than 30% of the populace. Like Sudan, many of the worst hunger zones are also conflict zones – including Myanmar, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Haiti, Nigeria and Gaza. War makes it all the harder for the international community to intervene.

'HUNGER KILLED HER'

Before the war, South Kordofan had some two million people. The need for outside help has intensified as some 700,000 displaced people have poured into camps and towns in SPLM-N areas since the war erupted.

Food stocks in the state were already low before the war. A poor harvest in 2023 was compounded by a locust plague that devoured crops. The war and the resulting refugee influx made things far worse.

In the communities Reuters visited, hunger and disease are everywhere. In one camp in the county of Um Durain, home to some 50,000 people, children have been dying of malnutrition and diarrhea for the past year, said community leader Abdel-Aziz Osman.

Nutrition workers at a treatment center in the camp are seeing 50 cases a month of children and mothers suffering malnutrition. Before the war, medics were treating five to 10 cases of malnutrition a month in the entire county.

In the camp in Boram, toddlers with bloated stomachs and rail-thin arms stood outside huts made of sticks, plastic and clothes – vulnerable to rain, snakes and scorpions.

Raous Fleg, the woman who makes the leafy mush, arrived in the camp from Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, in December with her mother and six of her children. She left three of her children behind with her husband, a soldier in the Sudanese army. They made the treacherous journey on foot over a pass in the Nuba Mountains, an area that’s home to a mix of ethnic groups.

Fleg is a member of the Nuba people, who form the main support base of the SPLM-N. Growing up in the Kadugli area, Fleg says, she endured repeated aerial bombardments by government forces.

In the early 2000s, when she was a teenager, fighter jets dropped barrel bombs on her home. Seven members of her family died, including her father and two siblings. She recalls being buried beneath the rubble and getting pulled out alive. Her mother also survived.

“The blood flowed like this,” she said, holding a plastic bottle filled with water and pouring it onto the ground.

Thirteen years later, her in-laws and two more siblings were killed in another air strike by government forces. A third sibling died in hospital after losing two limbs in the attack. Again, she and her mother survived.

After they arrived in Boram county, Fleg’s mother felt weak. There was nothing to eat, so Fleg gave her some water with seeds to drink. But it gave her diarrhea. Doctors at a nearby clinic said her mother was suffering from dehydration and hunger, said Fleg.

On the evening of Jan. 5, Fleg felt her mother’s chest to check if she was still breathing. She wasn’t. After she’d survived years of air strikes, “hunger killed her,” said Fleg.