SUDAN revoked the licence of Al Jazeera Mubasher, part of the Qatar-based network, accusing it of “unprofessional” TV coverage of anti-coup protests, said the channel today.

“The Sudanese authorities have announced that they revoked the accreditation of Al Jazeera Mubasher and barred its team from working in Sudan,” tweeted the news channel.

Sudan has been gripped by political turmoil since top military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan launched a coup on October 25.

The military power-grab triggered mass protests by pro-democracy movements demanding civilian rule, which has been met with a deadly crackdown.

At least 64 protesters have been killed and a police officer lost his life, according to pro-democracy medics.

Al Jazeera has given prominent coverage to the demonstrations and also aired an interview with Burhan late last year.

In November, days after the interview, it said its Khartoum bureau chief, Al-Musalami al-Kabbashi, had been arrested at his home.

Kabbashi was released with no official charges announced against him three days later.

The editor-in-chief of the armed forces newspaper Ibrahim al-Hory later accused Kabbashi of publishing “false” information and airing “old video footage… that instigated strife” in the country.

Burhan declared a state of emergency on October 25, ousted the government and detained the civilian leadership.

Prime Minister Abdulla Hamdok was placed under house arrest, but later reinstated in a deal with the military.

Hamdok resigned on January 2, warning that the country is at a dangerous crossroads threatening its very “survival”.

Burhan insisted the military’s move “is not a coup”, but a push to “rectify the course of the transition”. – AFP, January 16, 2022.