Sudan shuts down Al Jazeera office

Sudan has withdrawn the work permits for members of staff working for Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera and it has shut down its Khartoum office, the station said.

No reason was given for the decision, Al Jazeera added.

The station has regularly broadcast footage of demonstrations in Sudan.

The closure comes after the head of Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC), Abdelfattah al-Burhan, traveled to Saudi Arabia on Thursday for a summit.

In 2017, Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of terrorism, which it denies.

Sudan has been run by the TMC since long-time President Omar al-Bashir was toppled last month, but it has struggled to return the country to normality.

Protesters, emboldened by Mr Bashir’s downfall, have continued to stage a huge sit-in outside military headquarters in the capital, demanding full civilian government.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the military council said in a televised statement that the protest encampment represented “a danger to the revolution”.