In its October 2024 report on the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, the UN Human Rights Council noted that the RSF, in February 2024, forced Zain Sudan, the third largest provider of telecommunications services in the country, to stop its services in River Nile state. Since many Sudanese rely on online payment solutions to access food and other essential goods, and as civilians’ access was hindered due to the network disruptions, this had a great impact on the daily life of civilians in River Nile.957
Mid-January 2024, Agence France-Presse (AFP) with reference to a medical source in River Nile state’s Shendi city, reported a landmine explosion on a bus in northern Sudan transporting passengers from Al Jazirah state to Shendi city, which resulted in ten civilian fatalities. AFP noted that the landmine explosion ‘appeared to be the first such incident during the country's war’.958
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UN Human Rights Council, Findings of the investigations conducted by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan into violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, and related crimes, committed in the Sudan in the context of the conflict that erupted in mid-April 2023, A/HRC/57/CRP.6, 23 October 2024, url, para. 268
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AFP, Ten killed in Sudan landmine explosion: medical source, 21 January 2024