On a street corner in the Sudanese town of Tamboul, dozens of people tap feverishly on their phones, calling loved ones and moving money through online apps.
At the center of their huddle is a bright white dish that connects to the Internet via Starlink, the satellite system owned by Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX).
Starlink has become a lifeline for some in a country where the Internet has gone down regularly since April last year when war erupted between Sudan’s army and paramilitary force.
Photo: EPA-EFE
However, the system, which can bring connectivity where there is no land-based network, is not officially available in Sudan.
Instead, the kits have made their way into the country “illegally via Libya, South Sudan and Eritrea,” one device reseller said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Dishes and subscriptions can cost hundreds of dollars, well out of reach for most Sudanese.
The fees are paid by overseas Sudanese or entrepreneurs such as Mohamed Bellah, who runs an Internet cafe in a village about 120km south of Khartoum.
“You can make your money back in three days,” he said, adding that the investment was worth every cent.
The conflict between the army of Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has displaced millions and killed thousands.
The banking system has collapsed and millions can now access money only via the Bank of Khartoum’s app, Bankak.
Officials have not offered an explanation for the blackouts, although a near-total shutdown in February was widely blamed on the RSF.
Now people like Issam Ahmed, huddled around a dish in Tamboul about 140km southeast of Khartoum, are reliant on Starlink.
He has been anxiously waiting for family news and financial support from his son, who works in Saudi Arabia.
“He sent me money through the bank app and I just transferred it to a currency dealer who will give me cash,” Ahmed said.
Starlink, which is available in more than 70 countries, enables users paying high-cost tariffs to take their dishes with them across national boundaries.
Musk made a big play of deploying the system in war-torn Ukraine and during protests in Iran in 2022.
Yet he has made no such gesture for Sudan, and none of the tariffs advertised on Starlink’s Web site would allow the kind of usage seen there.
SpaceX has not responded to requests for clarification.
The Sudanese government, which is loyal to the army, banned Starlink devices in December last year, but by that stage, the RSF had already started exploiting the business opportunities.
In Qanab al-Halawein, a village southeast of Khartoum, RSF forces charge for access to their own dish.
They “set up the dish in the square every morning and leave in the evening with all the money they have made,” one resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
An Internet cafe owner in another village said RSF personnel came “every day” and took 150,000 Sudanese pounds (US$256) in exchange for allowing the cafe to offer Starlink.
The army caught on and partly backtracked on its ban, announcing in late February that it would donate some Starlink dishes to residents in Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum.
Yet the vast region of Darfur in Sudan’s west, home to about one-quarter of its 48 million people, has been particularly hit by the war-time blackout.
Huge areas have been without any connection for nearly a year and use of the dishes has spread rapidly in a region largely controlled by the RSF.
“Without [Starlink] we could have never figured out how to receive money,” Mohammed Beshara tsaid via text message from the Otash camp in South Darfur.
Yet for Beshara and thousands like him, it takes money to get money. He pays about US$3 an hour for the connection and currency dealers take commissions for every Bankak transaction.
For desperate Tamboul residents such as 43-year-old Arij Ahmed, paying commissions is a necessary sacrifice.
She walks 5km with her 12-year-old son to the Starlink dish “every week, when my husband in Qatar gets his pay check and he sends us a transfer,” Ahmed said.
And every week, she hopes to get enough money to survive until her next connection.
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