Sudan state TV cuts transmission amid clashes

CAIRO (Reuters) – Sudan state television cut its transmission on Sunday afternoon, a move that employees said was aimed at preventing the broadcast of propaganda by a paramilitary force that was battling the army for control of the capital.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said it had taken control of state TV and other strategic facilities as fighting erupted around Khartoum on Saturday, claims that were refuted by the army.

By Sunday, the army appeared to have the upper hand in the fighting in Khartoum.

State media employees, speaking on condition of anonymity, said authorities had cut broadcast signals after the RSF had entered the main state broadcaster building in Omdurman, across the Nile from Khartoum, and used radio networks to broadcast programming favourable to the RSF.

Reuters reporters in Khartoum and several other cities outside the country said transmission on the main state TV channel went blank on Sunday after hours of looped repeats of recorded material. State radio was also cut.

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz, Omar Abdel-Razek and Adam Makary; Editing by Frances Kerry)