Sudan Youth Radio Muzzled for 6 Weeks After Coup

Sudanese journalists rally in front of "Hala 96" radio station's headquarters in the capital Khartoum Mujahed Sharaf AL-DEEN SATI AFP
Sudanese journalists rally in front of "Hala 96" radio station's headquarters in the capital Khartoum Mujahed Sharaf AL-DEEN SATI AFP
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Sudan Youth Radio Muzzled for 6 Weeks After Coup

Sudanese journalists rally in front of "Hala 96" radio station's headquarters in the capital Khartoum Mujahed Sharaf AL-DEEN SATI AFP
Sudanese journalists rally in front of "Hala 96" radio station's headquarters in the capital Khartoum Mujahed Sharaf AL-DEEN SATI AFP

A lively youth-run radio station, Sudan's 96.0 FM was muzzled for 46 days after authorities banished the channel from the airwaves following an October 25 military coup.

"I felt like a person who had the ability to speak and suddenly stopped.. It's a painful feeling," Khaled Yehia, production manager of "Hala 96", told AFP from the station's headquarters overlooking the Nile in Khartoum.

Sudan, with a long history of military coups, has undergone a fragile journey toward civilian rule since the 2019 ousting of veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir following mass street protests.

A joint military-civilian transitional government took over, but the troubled alliance was shattered on October 25 when General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan launched a military coup that sparked international condemnation, mass protests and deadly crackdowns.

Despite the release of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok from effective house arrest, several radio broadcasts were silenced.

The information ministry refused to renew the license of Monte Carlo radio's Arabic service, which broadcasts from Paris, while the BBC's Arabic service was banned.

"All of the other radio channels were back on air two weeks after the coup except for Hala 96, BBC and Monte Carlo (RMC)," said Abiy Abdel Halim, Hala's programming manager.

"When we asked the authorities for the reason, we were referred to a military official who said there were orders from above regarding the editorial line of the station," he added.

Hala 96 was finally allowed to go back on the air on Thursday.

Founded in 2014 under the heavy-handed rule of Bashir, Hala Radio hit the airwaves with daily programs alternating between politics, culture and sports.

"We started playing patriotic songs that would mobilize crowds," when the demonstrations against Bashir in December 2018 began, Abdel Halim said.

"And we weren't even stopped back then save for one time and only for 24 hours".

Boasting a staff of 35 on-air presenters, journalists, technicians and administrators all under 40, they mirror the demographics of Sudan.

Youth represent about 68 percent of the country's 48 million-strong population.

On Wednesday, dozens of journalists protested in front of the radio channel's headquarters carrying banners with the words "Free Hala 96".

Throughout Bashir's dictatorial reign, Sudan ranked 174 out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index. Following his ousting, it marginally improved to 159.

"What with propaganda, the Internet being disconnected and the crackdown on journalists, this military coup has jeopardized the fragile gains from the revolution," the Paris-based press freedom group said last month.

It described Sudan as a "very hostile environment" for media to operate.

Last week in a report submitted to the Security Council, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Sudanese authorities to "respect freedom of speech and of the press".



Sudan PM Vows to Rebuild Khartoum on First Visit to War-torn Capital

Kamil Idris, a former UN official who was appointed in May as prime minister by Sudan's leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, addresses people and local fighters supporting the Sudanese army who came to cheer him on, during a visit in Omdurman on July 19, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
Kamil Idris, a former UN official who was appointed in May as prime minister by Sudan's leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, addresses people and local fighters supporting the Sudanese army who came to cheer him on, during a visit in Omdurman on July 19, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
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Sudan PM Vows to Rebuild Khartoum on First Visit to War-torn Capital

Kamil Idris, a former UN official who was appointed in May as prime minister by Sudan's leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, addresses people and local fighters supporting the Sudanese army who came to cheer him on, during a visit in Omdurman on July 19, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
Kamil Idris, a former UN official who was appointed in May as prime minister by Sudan's leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, addresses people and local fighters supporting the Sudanese army who came to cheer him on, during a visit in Omdurman on July 19, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)

Sudan's Prime Minister Kamil Idris on Saturday pledged to rebuild Khartoum, ravaged by more than two years of war, as he made his first visit to the capital since assuming office in May.

Touring Khartoum's destroyed infrastructure earlier, the new premier outlined mass repair projects in anticipation of the return of at least some of the over 3.5 million people who fled the violence, AFP reported.

"Khartoum will return as a proud national capital," Idris said, according to Sudan's state news agency.

Sudan's army chief and de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who appointed Idris, landed Saturday at Khartoum's airport, recaptured by the army in March after nearly two years of occupation by their rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The war between the Sudanese army and the RSF began in the heart of the capital in April 2023, quickly tearing the city apart.

Tens of thousands are estimated to have been killed in the once-bustling capital, and reconstruction is expected to be a herculean feat, with the government putting the cost at $700 billion nationwide, with Khartoum alone accounting for around half of that.

The army-aligned government, which moved to Port Sudan on the Red Sea early in the war and still operates from there, has begun to plan the return of ministries to Khartoum even as fighting rages on in other parts of the country.

Authorities have begun operations to properly bury the bodies still missing around the city, clear thousands of unexploded ordinance and resume bureaucratic services.

On a visit to Sudan's largest oil refinery, the Al-Jaili plant just north of Khartoum, Idris promised that "national institutions will come back even better than they were before".

The refinery -- now a blackened husk -- was recaptured in January, but the facility which once processed 100,000 barrels a day will take years and at least $1.3 billion to rebuild, officials told AFP.

Cabinet stumbles

The UN expects some two million people will return to Khartoum this year, but those coming back have found an unrecognizable city.

The scale of looting is unprecedented, aid workers say, with evidence of paramilitary fighters ripping copper wire out of power lines before they left.

Vast areas of the city remain without power, and the damage to water infrastructure has caused a devastating cholera outbreak. Health authorities recorded up to 1,500 cases a day last month, according to the UN.

"Water is the primary concern and obstacle delaying the return of citizens to their homes," Idris said on Saturday.

A career diplomat and former UN official, Idris is building a government that critics warn could put up a veneer of civilian rule, in addition to facing challenges within its own camp.

In 2020, during a short-lived transition to civilian rule, the government in Khartoum signed a peace agreement with Sudanese armed groups, allocating a share of cabinet posts to signatories.

All but three cabinet posts are now filled, and armed groups currently fighting alongside the army have retained their representation in Idris's government.

But reports that Idris had sought to appoint technocrats in their place have created tensions.

Some of the armed groups, known together as the Joint Forces, have been integral in defending North Darfur state capital El-Fasher, which has been besieged by the paramilitaries since May of last year.

If the RSF succeeds in taking El-Fasher, it will control all of the vast western region of Darfur, cementing the fragmentation of the country.

Despite the army securing the capital, as well as the country's north and east, war still rages in Sudan's west and south, where the RSF is accused of killing hundreds of civilians in recent days.

Sudan is suffering the world's largest hunger and displacement crises, with nearly 25 million people in dire food insecurity and over 10 million internally displaced across the country.

A further four million people have fled across borders.